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Swansea City vs Tottenham Hotspur
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 30/03/13
15:00pm K.O.
The Liberty Stadium
Referee: Anthony Taylor
The Match
Swansea will set out looking for their first win against Tottenham Hotspur since 1991. This has been a much reported statistic, but what has often been overlooked is that the Swans 1-0 win over Spurs back at the Vetch was actually the first leg of a 2nd round League Cup tie. The counterpart fixture ended 5-1 with Vinny Samways and Gary Lineker getting on the scoresheet, and an owl goal from Derek Brazil (who was on loan from Manchester United at the time) compounded their woes. To find a win over Spurs that meant something you have to go back to October 1982, although the Swans got relegated that season so ultimately that one didn't mean much either. Remarkably, Swansea didn't win a single away game that season; thankfully the Swans haven't retained that trait as they threatened to do last year. Aside from that, two losses on the bounce will leave Laudrup's squad determined to make amends in front of a home crowd who will have spent the last week baying for football.Tottenham head over the Severn Bridge (surely they don't fly to Cardiff...) on the back of three straight defeats, although one of those defeats actually saw them advance to the Quarter-Finals of the Europa League on away goals. They'll be looking at Swansea as a side they should, on paper, beat if they are serious about gaining an automatic Champions League spot. Last time these two sides met Jan Vertonghen scored the winner in what was, in truth, a bit of a whitewash at White Hart Lane. Spurs had 16 shots on target, and the Swans had none, so it's likely we'll see a very different match this time around.
Prior Form (most recent at top)
Premier League Swansea 0-2 Arsenal
Premier League West Brom 2-1 Swansea
Premier League Swansea 1-0 NewcastleLeague Cup Final Bradford 0-5 Swansea
Premier League Liverpool 5-0 Swansea
Premier League Tottenham 0-1 Fulham
Europa League Inter 4 -1 Tottenham (agg 4-4)
Premier League Liverpool 3 -2 Tottenham
Europa League Tottenham 3 -0 Inter
Premier League Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal
Odds: Swansea 21-10, Tottenham 21-20, Draw 9-4.
Team News
Tottenham look set to have both Michael Dawson and Aaron Lennon available for selection, but Younes Kaboul remains out with a knee injury.
Trivia - "Courtesy" of Opta, the BBC and various other sites;
- Tottenham have won three and drawn one of their last four competitive meetings with Swansea.
- Swansea failed to register a shot on target against Arsenal - only the third time that's happened this season
- No player has scored more goals from outside the area in the top five European Leagues this season than Gareth Bale (six - level with Messi).
- The Swans have not won any of the 16 Premier League games that they have fallen behind in this season (D6 L10).
- No player has scored more Premier League goals in home games this season than Michu (10), although he has netted just twice in his last five games at the Liberty Stadium.
- Only Manchester United (32) have won more points away from home in the Premier League this season than Tottenham Hotspur (26).
- Spurs have netted 69% of their goals in the second half of Premier League matches this season; a league-high proportion.
- Swansea City have scored just four goals from set-piece situations in the Premier League this season; a league-low.
- The Swans have, however, conceded the highest number of goals from set-piece situations this season (18).
- Tottenham have conceded more goals in the 90th minute or later than any other Premier League side this season (6).
Completely guessed lineups
Straight from the "horse's mouth";
Michael Laudrup seems to think Spurs international players could be affected by their midweek exploits;
"In Spain they call it the Fifa virus. The big teams suffer, especially the first game after the break because they haven't been together for two weeks.
"We have had players away but it's not like 15 players, like some of the big clubs, but for Tottenham, it's not the same because they have more international players than we have.
"You never know after an international break. Some of the big clubs, they always hate it. Everybody is away and some of the players come back on the Thursday or the Friday and have to travel on a Friday and play on a Saturday."
Nathan Dyer thinks it would be daft to focus exclusively on Gareth Bale, given the capabilities of his Spurs team-mates:
“They are a great side with plenty of power and pace, but we can’t focus on stopping them – it’s about playing our game. I obviously know Gareth very well because of our days together at Southampton. He is the total footballer. He is a massive threat, of course, but if we concentrate too much on one player then other players in the team would hurt us.
“When you look at Spurs you can see they have a number of top players who can cause you a lot of problems, so there’s no use just concentrating on one particular player – you have to try and stop them all.”
Andre Villas-Boas is looking to secure a result in SA1:
“We had an excellent game against them at home and hopefully we’ll do the same at Swansea, although we recognise it will be more difficult. It will be different because they’ve also come off a defeat and everyone wants to get back to winning ways.
“We’re normally good away from home and we’ll try to set out a performance like we had at Liverpool (March 10), but with a positive result. We feel down for the results we had recently, but we can’t forget that it was the players’ ambition that put us in the position we’re enjoying. We were in a situation of pressure before that but we handled it well.
“The lads showed tremendous commitment to do things right, so that leaves us confident for the eight matches remaining."
Analysis
There's an elephant in the room, hinted at by Nathan Dyer, in the form of Gareth Bale, so let's get that over and done with. Exceptional in recent times, he's struggled with an ankle injury and had to come off at half time in the first of Wales' recent international fixtures. He did play a full ninety minutes in the second match against Croatia though, and can't be 100% fit.
If Bale plays, and isn't on his game, Tottenham must surely be liable to fall into the trap of looking to base their game around the talisman of their season. If that is the case, the Swans have a real possibility of getting at Tottenham, as in truth Spurs performances have dipped and they aren't the marauding force they threatened to be at one point this season. They are, however, formidable opponents away from home, having scored in 93% of their away games - couple that with the fact that the Swans have conceded (on average) 1.4 goals per game at home, then any of you who fancy a flutter should be betting on lots of goals.
That being said, before the Newcastle game I was walking around the East Stand with a friend, talking about how both sides had been scoring for fun and how the statistics pointed to lots of goals - and for that reason I called it 0-0. It turned out that we won 1-0, but it always seems the way that when everything points to a deluge of goals, the complete opposite occurs, and to be honest I'd take a 0-0 against a Spurs side very much still fighting for Champions League qualification. It won't be lost on the Spurs players that their North London rivals came away from the Liberty with all three points only 2 weeks ago, and they'll be looking to repeat that feat, but I can see the Swans sneaking a point here.
How the teams line up will be absolutely crucial in deciding what goes on afterwards. Away at Everton, Laudrup pulled a tactical rabbit from his continentally styled hat by playing both right backs, Angel Rangel and Dwight Tiendalli, in an attempt to stifle the the combination play of Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar. It worked a treat, especially considering the thorough job Everton did of dismantling the Swans a couple of months prior to that, and it's more than possible he's contemplating a similar move this time out against Spurs, but the obvious danger is that if we set up expecting Bale to play in one position, and in fact he's given a different role in the team, then we could be in big trouble from the off.
As Dyer has stated, the Swans need to play their own game, and if they want it enough, they'll get the result. As mentioned, all the statistics point to goals galore, but I'm not so sure. Both managers, and both teams, want this result very badly and in similar circumstances that normally makes for a cagey affair, so if it is a win either way I can see it coming by the odd goal. Michu is due a goal, and Pablo is due a good performance, so maybe one of the Spanish lads will steal the limelight once again.
Here's hoping for a good game, full of expansive attacking football. Both teams have been excellent on the counter-attack this season, and it's possible that this particular match-up could develop into an end-to-end festival of goals and excellent football.
Then again, it could well be 0-0. Such is football.
Iechyd Da.
If Bale plays, and isn't on his game, Tottenham must surely be liable to fall into the trap of looking to base their game around the talisman of their season. If that is the case, the Swans have a real possibility of getting at Tottenham, as in truth Spurs performances have dipped and they aren't the marauding force they threatened to be at one point this season. They are, however, formidable opponents away from home, having scored in 93% of their away games - couple that with the fact that the Swans have conceded (on average) 1.4 goals per game at home, then any of you who fancy a flutter should be betting on lots of goals.
That being said, before the Newcastle game I was walking around the East Stand with a friend, talking about how both sides had been scoring for fun and how the statistics pointed to lots of goals - and for that reason I called it 0-0. It turned out that we won 1-0, but it always seems the way that when everything points to a deluge of goals, the complete opposite occurs, and to be honest I'd take a 0-0 against a Spurs side very much still fighting for Champions League qualification. It won't be lost on the Spurs players that their North London rivals came away from the Liberty with all three points only 2 weeks ago, and they'll be looking to repeat that feat, but I can see the Swans sneaking a point here.
How the teams line up will be absolutely crucial in deciding what goes on afterwards. Away at Everton, Laudrup pulled a tactical rabbit from his continentally styled hat by playing both right backs, Angel Rangel and Dwight Tiendalli, in an attempt to stifle the the combination play of Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar. It worked a treat, especially considering the thorough job Everton did of dismantling the Swans a couple of months prior to that, and it's more than possible he's contemplating a similar move this time out against Spurs, but the obvious danger is that if we set up expecting Bale to play in one position, and in fact he's given a different role in the team, then we could be in big trouble from the off.
As Dyer has stated, the Swans need to play their own game, and if they want it enough, they'll get the result. As mentioned, all the statistics point to goals galore, but I'm not so sure. Both managers, and both teams, want this result very badly and in similar circumstances that normally makes for a cagey affair, so if it is a win either way I can see it coming by the odd goal. Michu is due a goal, and Pablo is due a good performance, so maybe one of the Spanish lads will steal the limelight once again.
Here's hoping for a good game, full of expansive attacking football. Both teams have been excellent on the counter-attack this season, and it's possible that this particular match-up could develop into an end-to-end festival of goals and excellent football.
Then again, it could well be 0-0. Such is football.
Iechyd Da.