Tottenham’s League Record At Stoke City – Match Preview

Tottenham face a difficult task in their visit to Stoke City as they try to maintain their challenge for a Champions League finish. With Chelsea’s win at Aston Villa Spurs are now relying on Arsenal tripping up but they must ensure they win their games in order to be in a position to take advantage.

Tottenham’s Premier League Record at Stoke

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The clubs have met in the Premier League on four occasions at Stoke. Both teams have won twice. Stoke gained the upper hand in the first match in October, 2008 and in the match last season in controversial circumstances. Tottenham won two matches in 2010.

Oct. 2008  PL  Lost 1 – 2  Bent

This was the first meeting with Stoke in top flight football since season 1985-85. The match summed up Gareth Bale’s early days at Spurs and the abysmal start the club had to the 2008-09 season. It also proved to be a turning point as before the next weekend’s game Juande Ramos had departed and Harry Redknapp arrived.  Spurs were a goal down and a man down after eighteen minutes. Bale was sent off after making a mistake and then conceding a penalty in trying to rectify the error. Surprisingly, Darren Bent equalised within seven minutes but Stoke scored a second shortly after the interval. Vedran Corluka was stretchered off after sustaining an injury and his replacement, Michael Dawson was sent off in the final minute. As if Spurs hadn’t had enough, eleven minutes of added time was played as Spurs finished the day with ‘2 points from 8 games’.

Mar. 2010  PL  Won 2 – 1  Gudjohnsen, Kranjcar

After a scoreless first period, Spurs went ahead in the opening minute of the second half. Eidur Gudjohnsen who had replaced Roman Pavlyuchenko scored his first goal for the club. A penalty from former Tottenham player, Matthew Etherington, brought the game level but Nico Kranjcar restored Spurs’ advantage with a great strike following a Gudjohnsen dummy which created the space for him. Spurs remained in fourth place as they battled for a Champions League spot.

Photo: Jav The_DoC_66

Aug. 2010  PL  Won 2 – 1  Bale (2)

Bale set aside the demons of his previous indiscretions at the Brittania Stadium and proved the match winner. All three goals came within eleven minutes of each other during the first half. Bale scored from close range after Peter Crouch had headed on Aaron Lennon’s cross after nineteen minutes but Stoke equalised six minutes later following a corner. He restored Spurs’ lead with a wonderful left foot volley after half an hour to give Spurs their first win of the season.

December, 2012  Lost 1 – 2  Adebayor (pen)

Two words can sum up last season’s match – Chris Foy. His refereeing cost Tottenham three points and brought to an end their unbeaten run which had stretched back to mid-September. Tottenham with a poor first half performance found themselves two down but their recovery was hindered by the officials who made a number of crucial mistakes which favoured the home side. Stoke’s two goals were scored by Etherington, and resulted from Spurs’ inability to cope with the home side’s high ball tactics from throw ins and set-pieces. The fact that Stoke were assisted by a poor refereeing performance from Chris Foy sounds like sour grapes but his leniency to their style of play and his blind spot for offences in their penalty area gave them a considerable advantage in the second half when Spurs were in command. Emmanuel Adebayor scored from a penalty but had a goal incorrectly disallowed for off-side and Spurs had a number of other claims for penalties denied. To round matter off, Younes Kaboul was sent off after receiving a second yellow card.

Tottenham’s League Record at Stoke (inc. PL)

P  37  W  11  D  9  L  17  For  41  Ag  51

Earlier Matches

The last meeting in the old 1st Division in March, 1985 had seen the game settled in Spurs’ favour with a goal by former Stoke player, Garth Crooks. The previous season, a Mark Falco penalty had earned Spurs the three points.

In October, 1980, Spurs won  3 – 2 with Chris Hughton, Steve Archibald and Peter Taylor (pen) scoring.

All of the results since their first away meeting in the 2nd Division in April, 1920 have been quite close. On that occasion Spurs won 3 – 1 on their way to promotion as Champions after one season in the lower Division following Arsenal’s unscrupulous dealings to gain a place in the top flight ahead of Tottenham when the Division was increased in size after the 1st World War. Spurs legend, Jimmy Seed and Jimmy Cantrell (2) provided the goals. They were both in the 1921 FA Cup winning team and Seed went on to manage Charlton Athletic on retiring from playing.

In those days clubs met on successive weekends and the previous Saturday, Spurs had won 2 – 0 at White Hart Lane through goals from two other Spurs legends from their earliest days, Jimmy Dimmock and Arthur Grimsdell.

The largest win that Tottenham have enjoyed at Stoke came early in September, 1951. Spurs had won the 1st Division title the previous year for the first time and won 6 – 1 after a shaky start to the new season. At the beginning of the month they had lost 2 – 7 at Newcastle but recovered to dominate Stoke with goals from Alf Ramsey (p), Sonny Walters, Les Bennett, Les Medley (2) and Sid McClellan. At the end of the season Spurs finished as runners-up, behind Manchester United, while Stoke avoided relegation by one place.

Stoke Connections

Stoke City, founded in 1863, are celebrating their 150th anniversary at this game and although the first League meeting between Tottenham and Stoke wasn’t until season 1919-20, the two clubs have been linked since Spurs’ entry into the Football League in 1908. 

Spurs played in the Southern League and although they had turned professional in 1895 and won the F.A.Cup as a non-League club in 1901, the club had not applied for a position in the Football League. At the end of 1907-08 season, however, they resigned from the Southern League and applied for a place in the Football League but were not voted into the League, a major problem for the club. In mid-June, 1908 Stoke City resigned their place in the Second Division for financial reasons, creating an opening which Spurs were able to fill, being elected to the Football League at the end of the month.  Stoke, however, added further confusion to the situation when they tried to change their decision on resigning.

Team News:

Stoke City

Stoke are 11th in the League with 41 points. They have won 7, drawn 7 and lost 4 of their home games with 20n goals scored and 20 conceded. Their last home defeat was in mid-April when Manchester United won 2 – 0 and prior to that they had lost 3 – 1 to Aston Villa. those results raised concerns over relegation but their home win 1 – 0 over Norwich and four away points at QPR and Sunderland have eased the worries. Early in the season Stoke had home draws against Arsenal and Manchester City and they defeated Liverpool in December. It is their home form which has helped them this season as away from home they have managed to take only 13 points, one of which came at White Hart Lane in December from a scoreless draw.

Stoke’s leading goal scorer is Walters with 11 while Crouch has scored 7 goals. Jones has 5 goals. The stoke squad could contain four players with Tottenham connections. Crouch was in the team against Sunderland while Etherington came on as a late substitute. Among the substitutes were Wilson Palacios and Michael Kightly who was on Spurs’ books as a schoolboy but was released and then worked his way back with Southend United and Gray’s Athletic before joining Wolves in 2008 and helping them to promotion three years ago.He joined Stoke last summer.

Stoke have a strong, experienced team who play their system to perfection and they will make sure that Spurs have no easy ride to the three points they so desperately need from the game.

Tottenham

The latest team news is that Mousa Dembele has recovered from the injury he sustained against Southampton and which caused him to miss the midweek game. The presence of Dembele will be a boost to Tottenham as he will bring extra height and strength to midfield and defensive situations to combat Stoke’s usual aerial bombardment.

A tough match can be expected as Stoke are inclined to raise their game when faced with top opposition, always making it difficult for them. Spurs who will need to be prepared to match Stoke’s hard work ethic and stand up to their powerful play. Spurs have the players in Gareth Bale, Dembele and Aaron Lennon to create problems for the Stoke defenders but it will require the same intensity of performance as they showed against Chelsea on Wednesday evening.