The news broke this morning that the FA had finally taken some action over the John Terry racism affair. Terry has been stripped of the England captaincy with immediate effect. Of course the inadequate FA fell short of suspending him from playing for his country and it's unlikely that Terry will be big enough to remove himself for selection.

Having had a great win at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City in the Carling Cup on Wednesday night, expect to see Kenny re-introduce the likes of Jose Enriqué, Maxi Rodriguez as well as the combination of returning Captain Steven Gerrard to play alongside Charlie Adam in midfield in the absence of young Jay Spearing who did his hamstring on Wednesday.

Terry and Cole recreate a scene from 'Blades of Glory'

For many years - too many to mention - Tottenham simply could not beat Chelsea. Yes, there was the 5-1 victory at White Hart Lane in the 2002 League Cup semi-final, when everything clicked an even Sergei Rebrov scored, but in the Premier League up until 2006, it just would not happen for Spurs.

By Alan Duffy

Stoke City 1-1 Manchester United Premier League September 24

Manchester United saw their perfect start to the new Premier League campaign come to an end after a very difficult encounter with Stoke at the Britannia Stadium.

With Wayne Rooney sidelined with a hamstring injury, Antonio Valencia filling in at right-back for Jonny Evans, who limped out of the pre-match warm-up, and Michael Owen coming on for the injured Javier Hernandez after just 11 minutes, it just wasn't going to be United's day.

Sunderland A.f.c won for the first time on Sunday afternoon, against a rugged Stoke City side. To be honest, without sounding disrespectful Sunderland are not known for their intracut passing moves and most the midfielders, bar Seb Larsson + Sessegnon are there to stop goals rather than create them.

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.

10am ET, live in the US on Fox Soccer Plus
Last four head-to-head:
2-0 Liverpool (h) 02.02.11
0-2 Stoke (a) 11.13.10
1-1 (a) 01.16.10
4-0 Liverpool (h) 08.19.09
Last three matches:
Liverpool: 3-1 Bolton (h); 3-1 Exeter (a); 2-0 Arsenal (a)
Stoke: 1-0 West Brom (a); 4-1 FC Thun (h); 1-1 Norwich (a)
Goalscorers (league):
Liverpool: Suarez 2; Adam, Henderson, Skrtel 1
Stoke: Jones, Shotton 1
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (!

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.

Why Woodgate and Whittaker are my Champ and Chump of the week

Champ of the Week: Jonathan WoodgateJonathan Woodgate, the 31 year-old defender, was inspirational in Stoke's Europa League victory on Thursday night. It was great to see the former England star back in competitive action although I vividly remember seeing him play for Spurs in Europe before then to vanish through injury.

Stoke City have secured the services of former Leeds, Newcastle, Tottenham, Real Madrid and England centre back Johnathan Woodgate on a 1 year "pay-as-you-play" deal. The centre back - who's promising career has remained dogged by persistent injuries - will also have the option of extending his contract by a year should he make a sufficient number of appearances for Stoke during the 2011/2012 football season.

Stoke City have secured the services of former Leeds, Newcastle, Tottenham, Real Madrid and England centre back Johnathan Woodgate on a 1 year "pay-as-you-play" deal. The centre back - who's promising career has remained dogged by persistent injuries - will also have the option of extending his contract by a year should he make a sufficient number of appearances for Stoke during the 2011/2012 football season.

January 4th 2001: "There is no doubt Wes is an outstanding young centre half," said Jaap Stam. "He has pace, is good in the air and is a fantastic tackler. He is as good as any English centre-half in the Premiership, certainly alongside Jon Woodgate and Rio Ferdinand. The way he is playing at the minute, he obviously has a fantastic future ahead of him.

While the sight of Ledley King in a Spurs shirt once again will have delighted some supporters, his return to first team action may prove to be the last straw for Sebastien Bassong.

Both players featured in a Spurs XI game at the Lodge last week but it was Ledley who was brought straight in to the first team to replace the injured William Gallas despite severe doubts over his own fitness.

Harry Redknapp seems to have ruled out any chance of a new contract for Johnathan Woodgate, but it seems that the door might still be open on a ‘pay as you play' deal for the injury stricken centre half.

"It's a difficult one really, his contract is up at the end of the year," Harry is quoted as saying.

Sorry all, Rasp and I are really busy today, we haven't been offered a match report but BigRaddy wrote this before he went away so it would be churlish not to use it for discussion today following last night's thrilling 3-3 at the lane.
We had some fun recently with a post discussing how many Man Utd players would fit into our team playing in the same formation as Mr Wenger employs.

Harry Redknapp may have sprung a surprise when he announced that Ledley King and Johnathan Woodgate had returned to light training and that they may play a part in Spurs' run in to the end of the season.

"Both Jonathan and Ledley have been out with the fitness coaches and hopefully they'll be back training in a few days," Harry said.

For the time being at least, transfer gossip is turning away from Spurs' need for new strikers and looking at the issues in our defence. Injuries to Kaboul, Corluka and briefly Gallas have highlighted the problems in having two long term victims such as King and Woodgate in the squad. Irrespective of the club's plans for those two, it seems likely that Harry will move for at least one new defender in the summer.

The injury to William Gallas has plunged Spurs into a ‘defensive crisis' as we head into the most crucial part of our season. Hindsight is a wonderful thing in all walks of life, but when you look back to the January transfer window, could we not have pre-empted this?

Injuries can strike the fittest players at any time and the loss of Kaboul was unfortunate.

If there's one thing I love about Twitter is it's ability to start a full scale debate from one person's tweet. At approximately 10.30 this morning a Spurs fan, Kevin Jones, said "As a welshman I'm not bothered but Michael Dawson is not an England captain".

What has followed in the last hour has seen Michael Dawson's ability to not only be England's captain but also Spurs captain come into question.

Spurs fans born yesterday – or at least since around 2009 – may disagree, but following up victory at the San Siro with defeat at Blackpool would not be the most unlikely turn of events at for the heroes of N17. Mercifully the current vintage seem just as capable of digging out tricky away wins to lower-table scrappers as they are of churning out a never-to-be-forgotten glory night in one of Europe's premier arenas – which ought to prove jolly handy tonight, as our walking wounded leave a blood-stained trail from N17 to Blackpool pier.

Spurs fans born yesterday – or at least since around 2009 – may disagree, but following up victory at the San Siro with defeat at Blackpool would not be the most unlikely turn of events at for the heroes of N17. Mercifully the current vintage seem just as capable of digging out tricky away wins to lower-table scrappers as they are of churning out a never-to-be-forgotten glory night in one of Europe's premier arenas – which ought to prove jolly handy tonight, as our walking wounded leave a blood-stained trail from N17 to Blackpool pier.

Hot on the heels of the news of Johnathan Woodgate's long awaited comeback from injury are reports that he damaged his groin again in Tuesday's win over AC Milan. Woodgate came on for Vedran Corluka after 59 minutes and it appears he may have sustained further problems.

The official club website states that he has sustained a strain of the left adductor muscle and will be assessed over the next few days.

Come now, really – did anyone in their wildest dreams expect that? Really? That was not just a victory away to AC Milan, it was an absolute ruddy masterclass in the much-vaunted but rarely achieved art of Navigating Fiendishly Difficult Away Legs in the Champions League. Novices? Fie upon the very suggestion.

Everyone played their part in Tottenham's famous win last night including all the substitutes. You might have forgiven Harry Redknapp for waiting for a smaller stage on which to re-introduce Johnathan Woodgate, but the boss had no hesitation in bringing Woody into the fray after Flamini's horror tackle on Corluka.

Ostensibly I suppose this has little to recommend it. Our lot are without the glamour boys Bale, Modric and Van der Vaart, and there is no Darren Bent sub-plot for added intrigue. It's the sort of game for which Tony Gubba in the final slot on MoTD was invented – but fie upon the BBC schedulers.

Spurs have confirmed that they will be without Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart for Saturday's tough trip to Sunderland.

The three are still doubts for the Milan game and Harry Redknapp is quoted as saying: "They're all struggling at the moment. Luka's had his appendix operation and has just started jogging so he's not fit for tomorrow.

"You mean it will be difficult?"
"Very."
"Well this is not Mission Difficult, Mr Hunt, it's Mission Impossible. Difficult should be a walk in the park for you."

However, the chances seem increasingly slim that we will all have smug Tom Cruise-esque grins etched across our faces come May.

As widely predicted Johnathan Woodgate has been included in the squad for the trip to Blackburn. With so many injuries and suspensions it seemed inevitable that the player would be called up and according to the manager he may even start.

Harry said: "He'll be involved in some way but I've got a mind to throw him in at the deep end.

Putting rumour and gossip aside for one second there have been some updates on our walking wounded this week.

Both Jamie O'Hara and Johnathan Woodgate featured in our friendly against Charlton on Tuesday. O'Hara played for 70 minutes, as he looks to prove his fitness ahead of a proposed January move.

Over the weekend the tabloid 'News of the World" ran a back-page spread linking Arsenal with a move for Tottenham's walking injury named Jonathan Woodgate. Arsene Wenger was a keen admirer of the player during his Leeds and Newcastle days but couldn't stump up the cash when he went to Real Madrid.

There have been some absolutely crazy Arsenal transfer rumours since Arsene Wenger announced he was in the market for a new centre-back, ranging from £20m (no chance!) for Gary Cahill, to bringing in Jonathon Woodgate from Spurs, even though he has played just 45 minutes of a practise game in the last 14 months.

There have been some absolutely crazy Arsenal transfer rumours since Arsene Wenger announced he was in the market for a new centre-back, ranging from £20m (no chance!) for Gary Cahill, to bringing in Jonathon Woodgate from Spurs, even though he has played just 45 minutes of a practise game in the last 14 months.

The rumour-mill may keep turning and turning but the Arsenal FC Chequebook is staying firmly under lock and key by the look of it. The only real Arsenal transfer news is about players leaving on loan, though The Goon Blog ran a story about Eden Hazard provisionally agreeing terms to join the club, with just [.