This Saturday, Spurs will go head to head with bottom club Leicester City at White Hart Lane, with both teams looking for three vital points. Tottenham are looking to bounce back from the embarrassing 3-0 away loss last Sunday at Manchester United, whilst Leicester are looking to bounce back from 2 points out of their last 6 Premier League games, which shows just how deep into the relegation dogfight Leicester find themselves in alongside QPR, who Spurs beat 2 weeks ago, Burnley, Sunderland, and Aston Villa, led by “Mr. 59% win ratio” himself, Tim Sherwood.
Leicester will need to pick up maximum points this Saturday to stand any chance of a survival push, with winnable games with West Ham and West Brom coming up. Spurs, on the other hand, are looking to edge themselves back into the race for the top four after suffering a setback with the loss to Manchester United, as well as rivals Southampton, Liverpool and Arsenal all picking up points in the last round of games. With key games against many of the relegation threatened teams, and an away trip to Southampton coupled with a vital home tie against Manchester City, this weekend is one of the most vital for both teams, as the season could potentially be settled for the team who misses out on the three points.
The significance of this match cannot be understated. Tottenham need to pick up three points in order to retain any hopes of Champions League football next season, whilst Leicester need the three points to have a chance against their rivals if they want second season of Premier League. The remaining games of season will really show whether this has been an improvement on last season, where the club finished 6th in the league, and whether the fans will question in their mind if the quality of the squad is actually improving compared to recent years. Leicester, on the other hand, may want to repeat their FA Cup victory and nick a win to catapult the confidence of the squad in time for the most crucial game of their season against Burnley.
In terms of team news for Tottenham, the only absentee is striker Roberto Soldado, and with all respect to Bobby, he was never going to start ahead of the new England striker Harry Kane. The squad is more or less the same for Spurs, as with Pochettino’s new fitness regime keeping the players fitter and healthier probably for the first time since the old days of Juande Ramos, the players rarely seem to tire in game or even get muscle injuries, which has been the common enemy for Spurs players for as long as I can remember.
Hopefully for the Spurs fans, this game can spark a resurgence for the top four, as everyone knows how much the fans want to bring back the “glory glory nights” we all experienced a few years ago. It mean so much for the club to return to the competition, as Tottenham are the last team from North London to reach the Quarter-Finals of the Champions League in 2011 (yes, every Gooner I know has been reminded of that this week, makes me proud.) Those days would bring so much to the club and with victory this week against one of the teams that are rather unlucky to be in the relegation fight, as Leicester haven’t been poor, but more unlucky in front of goal, despite Leonardo Ulloa grabbing 9 goals for himself this season, and possibly providing the shock of the season by beating Manchester United 5-3 early on in the season. Both teams would benefit from victory this Saturday, but lest just hope its for the mighty lilywhites!!
