Tottenham vs Stoke City – Prediction
1-1 draw, On paper both Stoke and Tottenham look inseparable. Both suffered narrow loses on the opening day and will be hoping to get their season rolling on Saturday. Stoke do look as the slightly better attacking unit but haven’t gotten the time to totally gel together as a team yet.
Final Result: 2 -2 Draw
For Tottenham the question remains – who’ll step-up when Harry Kane is having a bad day? They might sign another striker before the window closes but Saturday it’ll be upto the young England international to step up and deliver. We can see both teams cancelling out each other for most parts of the game and won’t be surprised if it ends in a 0-0 draw.
Betting Tips
- Odds for Tottenham win – 1.8, Draw – 3.90 and Stoke win – 5.05.
- Clearly the bookies see Tottenham has clear cut favorites for the game maybe because of the home advantage. 3.9 for a draw and 5.05 for a Stoke win look like good bets for me and i would suggest placing small stakes on both.
- The top bet tip for the game is under 2.5 at odds of 1.95 as we believe it will be a low scoring affair.
Tottenham
The duo of Harry Kane and Hugo Lloris are set to appear in their 50th and 100th Premier League game respectively on Saturday, Can they inspire the team to a win? (caughtoffside.com)
Tottenham come into this game on the back of a 1-0 opening day defeat at the hands of Manchester United. Tottenham were marginally the better team for most parts of the game and were unlucky to go behind from a Kyle Walker own goal.
There were positives from the game for Spurs to be happy about, for a team that conceded over 50 goals last season they restricted one of the best attacking units in the league to just one shot on target.
Tottenham next face Stoke at home, the biggest problem heading into the game is the lack of attacking options upfront. Harry Kane remains the lone striker in the Tottenham squad after Soldado completed a move to Villarreal just hours ago. There is Emmanuel Adebayor but Pochettino has made it clear that the former Real Madrid and Arsenal striker is not a part of his plans moving ahead.
Spurs have managed to keep only one clean sheet at home in 2015. If there pre-season games are to be counted then Spurs have managed to win only one of their last 5 games.
Pochettino has the luxury of picking from a fully fit squad now that Hugo Lloris who had picked up an wrist injury in preseason is fit again. Andreas Townsend and Danny Rose have also recovered from their respective injuries.
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Stoke City
There is no questioning the work done by Mark Hughes at Stoke. He has been brilliant in cementing Stoke as a top Premier League club however you can’t help but wonder has been gone a bit overboard with the signings? We’ll soon know the answer (dailymail.co.uk)
The Potters come into this game on the back of a 1-0 home defeat at the hands of Liverpool last Sunday. Potters who had done well enough to deserve a point from the game but fell behind in the dying minutes of the game thanks to a wonder strike from Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho.
The club despite the defeat against Liverpool is filled with optimism heading into the game on Saturday largely due to the arrival of former Bayern Munich and Inter Milan star Xherdan Shaqiri. It’s amazing how Mark Hughes has turned the club around to one which can attract players from clubs like Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
As many as 11 new players have joined the Potters this summer and that may prove to be the problem for them this campaign. A large influx of new players into a team almost always unsettles the squad and the performances on the pitch suffer. Hughes must get his new team to gel quickly if they are to stay in and around the Europa league spots, a target they can achieve with the squad at their disposal.
The Potters have failed to win any of their last five away games in the Premier League. Similar to Tottenham Stoke have lost all but one of their last five games if the preseason games are to be counted.
Saturday could see the Premier League debut of Xherdan Shaqiri. Bojan who had missed the second half of last season due to knee ligament injury is fit again but is unlikely to be rushed back into Premier League action as Hughes wants him to regain match fitness.
Marco Arnautovic and Marc Wilson are still in doubt to feature against Spurs however Erik Peters is available for selection again after recovering from an illness. Club captain Ryan Shawcross still remains injured and won’t be back for atleast another 8 weeks.
Past Meeting
The last time these two teams met at White Hart Lane Stoke went onto beat the hosts 2-1. Stoke also won the reverse fixture at the Britannia Stadium in May when they put three past the Spurs goal. It was the first time that Stoke had completed the double over Tottenham in their history.
Where they are in the table
16th – Tottenham – 1 game – 0 points – (-1 GD)
15th – Stoke City – 1 game – 0 points – (-1 GD)
*Who will win the Premier League? Find out how each club could end in the table according to our predictions.
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