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So the Premier League season is finally here, it's Tottenham Hotspur's opening game versus Everton..........

That's how the preview for this one should have started, but the unfortunate and unseemly rioting of early August put paid to Spurs opening fixture. Now this is the game in hand it's vital that Spurs get maximum points if they want to be taken seriously as title challengers.

Dalglish praises Rio Ferdinand, Gallas returns to Arsenal and Aaron Ramsey's link to Gaddafi's death

Links to the most popular news, interviews and entertaining stuff from talkSPORT.co.uk in October 2011

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2011-12-31 08:00:00 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

With so many hamstring injuries at the Lane this week the team for tonight virtually picks itself. The big news once again is with Rafael van der Vaart whose scan seemed to give the Dutchman the green light to return to the starting XI.

Before the game, Harry spoke about VDV and gave some news about other recent injury victims.

Although the claims that Ledley King is something of a ‘lucky charm' may be slightly exaggerated, it's no co-incidence that his return to the side has seen Spurs climb the league table and into their current third place.

The chronic problems that prevent our club captain from training and lead to frequent absences are well documented but the importance of Thursday night's game could see him take the field in a midweek match for the first time in over a year.

It wasn't pretty. On a cold December Sunday afternoon, Tottenham Hotspur saw off a resilient Sunderland to record a 1-0 victory and get back to winning ways in the Premier League.

Winning ugly is the sign of champions. Not getting carried away here, I'm not suggesting Spurs are going to win the title, there's a chance of it, but Manchester City are a scarily good outfit and their neighbours are impossible to write off.

A nervy first half that saw Lennon removed with injury. With Modric drifting away from the left and VDV sure to drift away from the right, I was worried we'd have no width. We didn't, we missed it, but Pav gave us the lead and King, Gallas, Sandro and Friedel kept it for us.
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Injuries and suspension at the centre of defence could force Harry Redknapp to bring back Ledley King for Sunday's game against Martin O'Neill's side. Harry reports that Ledley is struggling but we've been in this position before where the club captain makes an unexpected return to the line up.

Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland, White Hart Lane, Sunday 18th December, 3pm Kick off

So on Thursday night Spurs European adventure for this season came to an end, despite a 4-0 win at Shamrock. The perceived wisdom is that this is a blessing in disguise and can leave Harry Redknapp and his team to concentrate on getting Spurs back into the Champions League.

THFC1882 present a guest preview by Rob:

Shamrock Rovers v Tottenham Hotspur, Thursday 15th December 6pm KO ITV4

So here we are, at the last match in the laborious group stage of the Europa League. A competition that is supposed to be the second best European competition to win but in my opinion is just plain second rate as shown by the fact that not that many teams are interested in playing in it.

After a run of 10 wins in 11, and six in a row, the true connoisseur does not really want the record to grind to a halt against Stoke. Against Barcelona maybe, or the Harlem Globe Trotters – but not Stoke.

Stoke are actually a member of that elite and highly exclusive band of English teams that have indeed beaten us this season (cast thine mind back to our peculiar Carling Cup exit a few months back).

Harry Redknapp has a few injury concerns ahead of Sunday's game with Stoke but the extra day could give Ledley King, Jermain Defoe and Gareth Bale the time they need to get fit.

There is cover in place for King and JD but Harry will certainly be reluctant to take to the field without Bale, who is back to his best and scored both goals here in our 2-1 win last season.

THFC1882 presents Siva's guest report on yesterdays action:

Tottenham: Friedel; Walker, Kaboul, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto; Lennon (van der Vaart 72), Parker (Livermore 85), Modric, Bale; Defoe, Adebayor

Goals: Bale 7, Lennon 50, Defoe 61

Well that was easy.

Game week is here and I'm a happy man, I met an old lady who predicted stuff with her fancy crystal ball and the inquisitive man in me asked her to predict this game week. So here is what she had to say:

Newcastle V Chelsea:

Alan Pardew's men are on a roll and AVB's men are down in a hole.

It's back to the second string tonight in a game where Spurs need to grab at least a point in order to ensure qualification for the next stage of the Europa League.

The big news is up front where officially, Harry Redknapp has declared Roman Pavlyuchenko and Gio Dos Santos to be ‘struggling' while in reality it seems likely that neither will make it.

THFC1882 welcomes back guest writer Mike Hooley with a preview of Wednesday's Europa League game:

So, Tottenham Hotspur play a European tie on a Wednesday once again, in what all Spurs fans hope will be a prelude of things to come next season.

However, the fantastic current league run – nine wins and a draw since the Manchester City defeat – is put to one side this week with the return fixture against the Greek outfit PAOK Salonika, current Group A leaders.

Absolute Radio have live commentary of West Brom v Spurs today. I'll be on with Ian Wright sometime after 5pm to talk about the game. Here is an exclusive of an interesting interview they did with Harry Redknapp that will be going out later today.

Int: So, Harry, tough trip on Saturday, how's the squad looking?

Emmanuel Adebayor helped himself to a first half brace, but should have had at least a hat-trick during a game that Tottenham barely had to break a sweat to dominate. In fairness, such was the gulf in quality, we should consider ourselves fortunate to have left with the score only 2-0.

There were rumours before kick off that Alex McLeish intended to field Alan Hutton as a right midfielder and Carlos Cuellar behind him at right back to deal with the threat of Gareth Bale and that's what he did.

The fans on the Fulham message boards are generally not confident about this one. Both teams had a mid week Europa game, Fulham won, and Spurs lost, but Fulham played their full team, whilst ours stayed home in the warm. They think that this, plus the fact that Modric and Parker are dominating teams at the moment will see Fulham defeated.

Spurs: Cudicini; Fredericks; Gallas (Parrett); Bassong; Townsend; Falque; Livermore; Carroll; Pienaar; Pavlyuchenko (Kane); Defoe

Tonights game at Central Stadium was always going to be tough for Spurs, no matter which team had been picked. Rubin Kazan have some experienced heads from Russian League and European football and they showed it with a commanding performance against a Spurs team that had a mix of youth and experience.

Spurs: Cudicini; Fredericks; Gallas (Parrett); Bassong; Townsend; Falque; Livermore; Carroll; Pienaar; Pavlyuchenko (Kane); Defoe

Tonights game at Central Stadium was always going to be tough for Spurs, no matter which team had been picked. Rubin Kazan have some experienced heads from Russian League and European football and they showed it with a commanding performance against a Spurs team that had a mix of youth and experience.

Tottenham look to stretch their unbeaten run to eight games with a trip to Russian side Rubin Kazan in the Europa League tonight. The team can secure their passage into the last 32 with victory tonight giving them two games to spare. This would be a welcome tonic for manager Harry Redknapp who is currently in hospital recovering from minor heart surgery.

Europa League. Central Stadium. 5pm kick off. ITV4.

Spurs travel to Tatarstan to take on Rubin Kazan for this away Europa League game. Last month, a young/2nd string Spurs side claimed a narrow 1-0 victory over Kazan at The Lane. That win has put Europa progress firmly in the Lilywhites sights.

Preliminaries: Untold Arsenal and Woolwich Arsenal sites have been under attack since Friday. We finally got this temporary site up and running on 25th, and we are still working on a resolution to the whole problem. Hence the odd layout and dodgy old picture. Tony

Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 9: Injuries rise again.

Luka Modric hit the headlines again last weekend as stories emerged about the Croatian's alleged criticism of Spurs' training methods.

Our old friends the Daily Mail were among the first with the report in which Luka suggested that training at Spurs was old fashioned and inadequate.

Jermain Defoe put last week's illness behind him against Shamrock Rovers and showed that he is ready to face Arsenal this Sunday.

That would suggest that Harry might be looking to renew JD's lethal partnership with Emmanuel Adebayor, but that would mean leaving out one midfield player from last week's win over Wigan and it's not easy to see who would miss out.

Vedran was reasonably certain he knew the Croatian for 'unmentionables'By the time Arsenal came to White Hart Lane for the return game, the buoyancy surrounding Spurs' season was starting to dissipate. A succession of agonisingly frustrating draws against bottom half sides had unravelled the chase for a second successive fourth place finish and where Spurs were floundering, Man City weren't.

Fabregas' entry into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame was seconds away from being confirmedBefore the first of last season's North London Derbies, this blog took a little stroll down memory lane and had a little look at the games from the previous season and how they had been previewed and then reviewed on the blogosphere.

The man who always finds a job: Claudio Ranieri (By Dominic Vieira)

Whether you think he's world class or not, it's clear Claudio Ranieri is a lucky manager. Since the Italian retired as a player in 1986, he has rarely experienced unemployment.

Ka-boom!! For all Spurs fans Younes Kaboul's 85th minute winner at the Emirates last season was a moment to savour. It wasn't the first time the French international had scored a crucial goal in a big game. Spurs 125th anniversary game had turned into a bit of a nightmare, being 4-1 down to Aston Villa certainly didn't point to a glorious birthday celebration.

Europa League or Carling Cup, which ought we to want less? It's a tricky one. The Europa League trophy is a sizeable beast, and its lack of handles gives it a pleasingly Neanderthalic edge – one cannot help but handle it in rough, uncouth manner when raising it aloft, which is rather apt after 90 minutes of blood and thunder.

Carling Cup. Tuesday 20th September 2011. Brittania Stadium. 7.45pm Kick off.

It was surprising to hear that Harry Redknapp is interested in the Carling Cup. Having made his disdain for the Europa League clear due to its allegedly crazy scheduling, it may have been expected he'd think the same of a trophy where Spurs are playing just 48 hours after a Premier League fixture.

Welcome to a fairly gloomy Monday morning. Not just from a weather point of view either. Ideally we'd be sitting here now looking forwards, not backwards, and twirling, always twirling, after a good win at the weekend. The reality is somewhat different.

The team hit its easy to find self-destruct button again against Blackburn and the frequency with which we do that seems to be increasing, which is a real worry.

Squad sheets: Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool

Harry Redknapp's distaste for the Europa League had veered into parody by the time he fielded just one of the team to have beaten Wolves last Sunday, but the importance he placed on this fixture was genuine. Spurs's early-season form has been dubious and if they are to end their six-month recession then victory against nominal rivals and a team whom they beat twice last season would be a start.

While Harry Redknapp has changed much of the side during the opening five fixtures of this season, he has generally relied on Michael Dawson throughout and you can almost detect that the Spurs' stand in skipper is the first name on the team sheet for every vital match.

However, whenever Daws' name is mentioned it always seems to split opinion with support and criticism in equal measures.

News of Hutton's departure had quickly reached the players4-2-3-1: Friedel; Walker, Dawson, Gallas, Assou Ekotto; Parker/Huddlestone, Modric; Lennon, van der Vaart, Bale; Adebayor. Has a nice ring to it, does it not?
The transfer window didn't so much slam shut as it did gently but firmly close last night and Spurs have been left, once again, to rue a couple of deals that got away.

Over the next few weeks we'll have a look at the players that remain in the Spurs squad for 2011-12 and ask what kind of impact they are likely to have at the club this season.

In the case of Younes Kaboul, this promises to be an interesting campaign and one in which he can cement a first team place and make himself Harry's first choice centre back to partner Michael Dawson.

After last week's emphatic 5-0 victory away to Hearts you could have been forgiven for assuming that Spurs would go into the home leg with a changed side to give some fringe players a run out. With a crucial game against Manchester City coming up on Sunday and the tie in the bag, it's a good chance to look at some youngsters but according to Joe Jordan, the strongest possible team awaits our opponents.

Rejoice, all ye fellow lilywhites. Admittedly it is also with a degree of trepidation (Old Trafford will do that to a Spurs fan) but goodness me it is wonderful finally to be able to look forward to Spurs in Premiership action tonight. ‘Tis with delight therefore that I invite you to gather round and peruse with me the permutations of team selection for the evening's festivities.

Parting shot round-up: Enrique, Gallas, Torres, Ronaldo, Adebayor and more

The footballers and managers who couldn't resist having a pop before the door closed

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2011-08-21 09:04:02 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.