Tottenham v Southampton: Preview, Kick-off, Team News

Tottenham face another testing afternoon against Mauricio Pochettino’s former club, Southampton. The south coast club have lost once this season and a win would take them back to second place in the Premier League.

Since Southampton’s return to the Premier League two seasons ago, Spurs have won, home and away, in both seasons. They recorded dramatic 3 – 2 wins in the two matches last season. The Saints last win at White Hart Lane was in September, 2003, a defeat which led to the departure of Glenn Hoddle. It was a sweet victory for the Saints as Hoddle had left their club in March, 2001 to take over as Tottenham manager.

Team Update:

Mauricio Pochettino has selected an unchanged team from last weekend:

Lloris; Naughton, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Rose; Capoue, Mason; Eriksen, Chadli, Lamela; Adebayor Subs: Vorm, Dier, Fazio, Dembele, Townsend, Kane, Soldado

Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton (Premier League)

Sunday, 5th October, 2014

Kick-off: 14.05pm (UK Time)

Last Season

Last March, Mauricio Pochettino’s Southampton were two goals ahead inside half an hour at the Lane. Two defensive errors from Kyle Naughton gifted them a deserved lead but Spurs fought back with two goals from Christian Eriksen. The first came in the 31st minute as an immediate response to Southampton’s second and his second came at the start of the second period. A late added time strike from substitute Gylfi Sigurdsson snatched the points for Tim Sherwood’s side.

The match at St. Mary’s in December was Sherwood’s first league game as interim Spurs manager and Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice having been restored to the team. Southampton went ahead but Adebayor equalised before the interval. An own goal gave Spurs the advantage only for Southampton to draw level before Adebayor added a third.

Southampton

After a summer of turmoil at Southampton with the departure of Pochettino and a huge number of his first choice players, the club has had the perfect response under Ronald Koeman. They were unfortunate to lose their opening game against Liverpool at Anfield and are undefeated since with their only other dropped points being in their next game, a scoreless draw at home to West Bromwich Albion.

Southampton sold 5 of last season’s main players and brought in 7 players to replace them. As well as Graziano Pellè, who they signed from Feyenoord, they signed Shane Long from Hull City and England goalkeeper, Frazer Forster from Celtic. Defender Toby Alderweireld came on loan from Atletico Madrid and Dusan Tadic, a midfielder was signed from FC Twente. Defender Florin Gardos joined from Steaua Bucharest.

Since late August Southampton have won 6 successive League and Cup games. The run started in London with a 2 – 0 Cup win over Millwall. They secured their first league win at Upton Park with a 3 – 1 success and then defeated a lacklustre Newcastle side 4 – 0 at St. Mary’s. They won 1 – 0 at Swansea who had started the season well and then defeated Arsenal at the Emirates in the Cup, maintaining their winning run in London this season. Last weekend they defeated Queen’s Park Rangers 2 – 1 at home.

Southampton’s leading scorer is their Italian striker, Pellè. He has 5 goals in all competitions and secured the Saints’ last win with a stunning scissor-kick against QPR. He scored two early goals against Newcastle and also scored at West Ham and in the Cup at Millwall.

Morgan Schneiderlin who was a summer-long target for Spurs has 3 goals including a brace in the win at Upton Park and a late 4th against Newcastle.

Tottenham

Mauricio Pochettino will be looking to end Spurs’ run of 4 league games without a win. Their only win since August was in the Cup when they scored three late goals against a tiring Forest team.

The draw against Arsenal showed greater application and commitment which was acceptable in a north London derby but the team will be expected to show a greater style and attacking threat at home this afternoon. It won’t be easy against a Southampton side high on confidence and with an extra incentive against the former Saints boss.

Pochettino is well aware of the significance of this game but will his players respond to his demands? Speaking of the match, BBC Sport reported the Spurs Head Coach’s comments,

"It’s a game that we need to win the three points. We need to fight with Southampton on Sunday, but it’s emotional. Football is emotional and Sunday is emotional for us too."

I would expect Pochettino to name an unchanged team from last weekend. None of the “midweek” team made a case for inclusion in Premier League matches and all bar Hugo Lloris were rested from the draw against Besiktas.

The manager, however, will want to see much more creativity and attacking threat from his font four – Eriksen, Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli and Adebayor.