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Stadium: White Hart Lane, London, England
Kick off: Saturday, 12:45 GMT, 13:45 CET, 18:15 IST (will be telecast on ESPN India)
The early kick off on Saturday sees two in-form teams go up against each other. While Spurs look to continue on their merry way after remaining unbeaten for their last nine games, Newcastle’s French revolution sees them going into the match after having won two games on the trot for the first time this season. Last season these two team had to be separated on the last day of the season. However, this year, Newcastle’s woeful start to the season made sure the magpies remain 18 points adrift of the Londoners.
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Newcastle return to the ground where they were comprehensively beaten last season 5-0 by a rampant Spurs team spurred on by an Emmanuel Adebayor performance that included 1 goal and 4 assists.
Tottenham Hotspur: WWDDDW
03/02/13- vs West Brom(A), 1-0
30/01/13- vs Norwich (A), 1-1
20/01/13- vs Manchester Utd. (H), 1-1
12/01/13- vs QPR(A), 0-0
01/01/13- vs Reading (H), 3-1
29/12/12- vs Sunderland (A), 2-1
Tottenham seemed to have carried their December form into the month of January as they will be attempting to go 10 games unbeaten in the league. Andres Vilas-Boas seemed to have won back the White Hart Lane faithfuls as they seem to go from strength to strength with each passing game.
The Lily Whites are on pace to finish the season with 68 points, which was good enough to finish in Champions League position in each of the last 3 years of the competition but they won’t need any reminding that finishing in the top 4 doesn’t always guarantee you Champions league football.
3 consecutive draws against QPR, Reading and Norwich was followed by a 1-0 win over West Brom a
Newcastle United: LLDLWW
02/02/13- Chelsea(H), 3-2
29/01/13- Aston Villa (A), 2-1
19/01/13- Reading (H), 1-2
12/01/13- Norwich(A), 0-0
02/01/13- Everton (H), 1-2
29/12/12- Arsenal (A), 3-7
The Magpies seemed to have finally hit some form as fresh January imports coupled with returning first team players finally lend the first team some quality and depth. The win against Chelsea last week made St. James’ Park buzz after quite a while, after a Moussa Sissoko inspired comeback win over the European champions.
The win over Chelsea was preceded by a triumph at Villa Park, which set the ball rolling for the the magpies after losing 11 of their last 13. The last two games have gone a long way to show that the team still had the grit and fight in them to triumph in tough circumstances.
Tottenham
Injury to Jermain Defoe in Tottenham’s previous game against West Brom will see the English forward sidelined for up to three weeks. Emmanuel Adebayor didn’t make it back from the African Cup of Nations by Spurs’ deadline but it is understood that he will be available for the game on Saturday.
Scott Parker has stepped in well for the injured Sandro but they will be missing the Brazilian in midfield who has been a class apart for them this season.
Michael Dawson has been showing that he still has it in him as he has performed admirably in recent games. Dawson was near to a switch to QPR at the beginning of the campaign but his performances might finally open Villas-Boas’s eyes to the stability that the England international brings to the table.
January signing Lewis Holtby might see a start and a home debut after coming off the bench in Spurs’ last game at the Hawthorns.
Newcastle
Newcastle will welcome back their own star from the African Cup of Nations as Cheikh Tiote could move into the middle of the park to form a trio with Yohan Cabaye, but will face stiff competition from James Perch who has been proved his worth in the defensive midfield role in the last couple of games.
The magpies are nearing full-strength as they move away from the dreaded drop zone in a season that has been ravaged by injuries to the men in black and white. This game was ear-marked as the date that Ben Arfa return to the fold. However the Frenchman still seems a couple of weeks away from making any sort of appearance.
Nine players were called up for international duty in midweek from Newcastle which goes to show the increased depth at Tyneside these days.
Tottenham: Gareth Bale
Gareth Bale running riot down the left seems to be the first picture that comes to mind when you think of Tottenham and th Welshman has done no harm to the imagination as he continues to build his reputation as one of the most offensively gifted players in the world.
Bale has become the linchpin of the Spurs side and they always look for the Welshman to deliver at their time of need and on most occasions he has come up trumps. Bale has had a week to remember so far as he scored the winner against West Brom. That game was followed by a man-of-the-match performance for Wales on Wednesday night where he scored one and set up another to help Wales defeat Austria 2-1.
He even drew praise from Alan Pardew who said that he considered him as one of the game’s best six players.
Newcastle: Yohan Cabaye
Moussa Sissoko might have grabbed the headlines in recent times but there is no mistake about who runs the show at Newcastle. Yohan Cabaye has been orchestrator in chief in the midfield at Newcastle ever since he set foot on English shores<
The magpies had really missed his creative presence and composed play as the Frenchman was out with a lengthy injury lay-off His return has seen the magpies back on the right track and if Newcastle are to get anything out of this game.
- Spurs and Newcastle have squared off 149 times throughout history – 62 wins for Spurs, 54 wins for the Toon & 33 draws
- Newcastle has won just 1 of their last 6 against Spurs in all competitions – the last win was the last time the teams met (Aug 2012)
- Newcastle have not beaten Spurs at White Hart Lane since March 2008.
- Both teams will be without their top scorers this season – Defoe (13 goals) is injured, Ba (14 goals) has left.
- Emmanuel Adebayor has a goal ratio of 1 every 1.8 games v Newcastle in the Premier League. He’s scored 5 in 9 appearances against them.
- The highest ever scoring game between Newcastle and Spurs was on 1st September, 1951 – Newcastle UFC won 7-2 at home in Division One.
