Stoke vs Tottenham

May 11, 2013
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Having secured Premiership survival with a point at the Stadium of Light, Stoke will be aiming to climb to the top half of the standings for the first time after quite a while by seeing off top 4 hopefuls Tottenham. Spurs kept their Champions League dream alive by holding Chelsea to a 2-2 draw, but they are well aware the chase will be effectively over for them if they fail to win at the Britannia.

Sigh of relief

It’s been a while since Stoke were last involved in the relegation tussle, and nobody could predict a nervy finish to the league campaign after Tony Pulis’ side did so well in the first part of the season. However, the dismal run of results in the New Year saw the team win just one of thirteen league fixtures, and with five games to go the Potters were effectively in the relegation dogfight. Just as people started believing Stoke might just go down, they impressed to beat relegation rivals QPR and Norwich before a point against Sunderland ensured they were mathematically safe. All that’s left now is to try and further improve the league position in the final two games, but that will be no easy task as Stoke face Tottenham at home and Southampton away. The lack of motivation could affect Tony Pulis’ men against Spurs, especially as their opponents will be fighting tooth and nail to edge closer to Champions League qualification. With Stoke having lost four of last eight Premier League games at Britannia Stadium, they might have to work really hard if they are going to improve the disappointing record.

Glenn Whelan, Andy Wilkinson and Marc Wilson are all injury doubts, but Matthew Etherington should return to the starting line-up.

Valuable point at Chelsea

Having worked so hard throughout the season, Tottenham look ready for the final push as they look to pip arch rivals Arsenal to the final Champions League berth. That looks a difficult task at the moment given that Spurs are one point behind with just two games to go, meaning they need to win their remaining games and hope that the Gunners would slip up against either Wigan or Newcastle. The fact is Tottenham have been running on empty of late, but they have showed a lot of character in scoring late goals against Wigan, Southampton and Chelsea, and they might just sneak a victory against indifferent Stoke. Spurs will have key midfielder Moussa Dembele back to the side, while Andre Villas-Boas is likely to introduce at least a couple of fresh players against the Potters, and I can see the visitors producing a decent performance at the Britannia. If everything else fails, the likes of Bale, Lennon, Dembele and Sigurdsson are all capable of producing something out of nothing, and they can be expected to make an impact provided they can cope with Stoke’s physical style of play.

Moussa Dembele returns to the side after recovering from injury, while Jermain Defoe and Gylfi Sigurdsson are pushing for starting places.

Verdict

Stoke have been showing a lot of improvement of late, but the lack of motivation and celebrations that followed clinching the Premier League survival could prevent them from giving their best against Tottenham. Spurs are not exactly on top of their game at the moment, but they are showing a lot of character and have quite a few players among their ranks capable of producing match-winning performance at the Britannia.

Top pick: Away win   1.91 (10/11) @ 888sport

Alternative pick 1: Under 2.5 goals   1.80 (4/5) @ SkyBet

Alternative pick 2: Half-time draw   2.20 (6/5) @ Ladbrokes

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