Tottenham vs. Stoke: Team News, Predicted Lineups, Live Stream, TV Info
Tottenham Hotspur host Stoke City on Saturday with both clubs attempting to secure their first points of the nascent Premier League season.
Despite positive opening-weekend efforts, both clubs' first 90 minutes of 2015-16 ended with 1-0 losses.
Tottenham's bright start at Manchester United came to an abrupt end when Nabil Bentaleb's giveaway resulted in the unfortunate Kyle Walker scoring in his own net. At the Britannia Stadium a day later, the Potters were undone by Liverpool attacker Philippe Coutinho's stunning late strike.
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Read too much into results at this very, very early point in the campaign at your peril—Spurs and Stoke will rightly argue for patience regardless of Saturday's result. Still, the cushion of a win coming sooner rather than later is always preferable.
Mark Hughes will hope his team can carry on where they left off last season against the capital club. Mauricio Pochettino's men were dispatched 2-1 at White Hart Lane in November before succumbing to a 3-0 defeat in the return in May.
"A couple of the boys have spoken about the previous results against Stoke so we want to make that right this weekend," new signing Dele Alli told Tottenham's official website. Fellow midfielder Ryan Mason was, however, keen to stress it was not a case of them becoming a bogey team for Spurs, "they just out-performed us both times they played us."
Date: Saturday, August 15
Time: 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. ET
Venue: White Hart Lane, London
TV Info: No live UK coverage, extended highlights on Sky Sports 3 from 10 p.m./NBC Sports Network (U.S. only)
Live Stream: None/NBC Sports Live Extra (U.S. only)
Form Lines
| Tottenham Hotspur | Stoke City |
| Premier League, August 8: Manchester United (a)—Loss: 1-0 | Premier League, August 9: Liverpool (h)—Loss: 0-1 |
| Pre-season (Audi Cup), August 5: AC Milan (a)—Win: 0-2 | Pre-season (Colonia Cup), August 2: Porto (a)—Loss: 3-0 |
| Pre-season (Audi Cup), August 4: Real Madrid (a)—Loss: 2-0 | Pre-season (Colonia Cup), August 1: Koln (a)—Loss: 2-1 |
| Pre-season, July 30: MLS All-Stars (a)—Loss: 2-1 | Pre-season, July 25: Brentford (a)—Loss: 2-1 |
| Pre-season (behind closed doors), July 22: Brentford (h)—Win: 2-1 | Pre-season, July 22: Wrexham (a)—Win:0-6 |
Team News
If he did not have any to hand, Pochettino will likely have asked one of his staff to pop to the chemist and get him some paracetamol in recent days. The Tottenham boss has been suffering with that frequent top-level football ailment, the selection headache.
Goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, defender Danny Rose and midfielders Alex Pritchard and Andros Townsend have all been declared fit for Saturday, per Spurs' official site.
Barring any issues in Friday's training session or overnight, Pochettino will have to disappoint a few players who will not make his matchday squad, let alone the starting XI.
Per their official website, Stoke could have attacker Marko Arnautovic and defender Marc Wilson available after injury, but new signing Xherdan Shaqiri is unavailable as he has to serve a suspension from his time in Italy.
Peter Odemwingie misses out after learning he will be sidelined for two weeks after suffering a hamstring injury in training.
Predicted Lineups
Pochettino's selection headache is likely to result in a few changes for his second Tottenham starting XI of the season. The likely decision to drop Michel Vorm—who did little wrong against Manchester United—for fit-again first-choice goalkeeper Hugo Lloris is a good example of the tough choices needing to be made.
A similar situation is faced at left-back where Ben Davies making way for Danny Rose would not be surprising.
Rose was one of those to perform particularly poorly against Stoke at White Hart Lane last season. His form having greatly improved by the following spring, he was missed when unavailable for the trip to the Britannia Stadium. Fit again after missing Manchester United with a thigh problem, he should be back in the team with the target of picking up where he left off last season.
The presence of Eric Dier in defensive midfield and Mousa Dembele out right helped Pochettino's team avoid being outfought as badly as they had been in March's 3-0 loss to the Red Devils. Both could still start again versus Stoke, but Spurs may opt for a more attacking approach back home that sees them make way.
Erik Lamela was unable to make a difference off the bench in the season opener but could get a start here, tasked with providing more creativity than Dembele offered. With Alli, Tom Carroll and Alex Pritchard now adding to the competition for places in attacking midfield, Pochettino will want to find out as soon as possible if Lamela is ready to really step up his game in year three of his England stay.
Dier as a midfield anchor could be something the Argentinian coach intends to make a near-permanent feature of his team. But until we see more evidence of that, it seems a decent bet that he goes with more of an aggressive all-rounder vs. teams Spurs hope to take the initiative against. Alli and Dembele are certainly contenders here, but we will predict last season's mainstay Ryan Mason to get the nod now he is back to full fitness following his late pre-season return.
The biggest question mark over Stoke's team was set to be whether Shaqiri makes his debut. Hughes had emphasised in the player's introductory press conference this week how well the Swiss international had settled—"he's flying to be perfectly honest"—per Stoke's official website.
Unfortunately Stoke have since been made aware about the earlier mentioned suspension issue so it is likely to be a case of as you were for Hughes' team.
It took something special from Coutinho to finally beat a Potters defence who had otherwise nullified the Reds. Left-back Erik Pieters did make way at half-time with Marc Muniesa switching from centre-back to cover him (substitute Philipp Wollscheid filling in for him); however, so long as they are all well, that initial back four should be kept on having not put a foot wrong.
Mame Biram Diouf and Jonathan Walters caused Spurs a number of problems last year and should be trusted to do so again, this time aided by Ibrahim Afellay (more on whom later). If they do not work this time, Hughes knows he can call on any one of Arnautovic, Peter Crouch or new man Joselu if he requires a different approach.
A midfield of Charlie Adam, Marco van Ginkel and Glenn Whelan provided solid backing a week ago. Hughes asking them to strive for a similar, albeit more obviously successful mixture of grit and glory makes sense against a Tottenham team who failed to resist it last season.
Tottenham Hotspur Player to Watch: Nabil Bentaleb
If Tottenham are to stop Stoke's midfield imposing their will on Saturday's game, they will need Nabil Bentaleb to be better than he was last week at Manchester United.
The Spurs central midfielder was arguably his side's rustiest performer up in the north-west. He played the misguided, forced pass that led to United's eventual winner and was largely flatfooted up until his 53rd-minute withdrawal.
Given how Spurs like to push on as quickly as possible, there is a burden on the 20-year-old (and whoever plays alongside him in midfield) not to lose possession and leave their defence exposed. Last week was not the first time his looseness here has ended up being punished.
Stoke will revel in trying to force such mistakes, making things as uncomfortable as possible for Spurs in midfield. Bentaleb showing greater focus and awareness in his use of the ball will go some way to ensuring they do not succeed.
The tameness of his overall performance last week can probably be put down to a lack of competitive match practice. Expect the Algeria international to look far hungrier, both in getting on the ball and tussling it out with his counterparts in the Potters midfield.
Stoke City Player to Watch: Ibrahim Afellay
With all the attention understandably on Shaqiri this week, it is easy to forget the excitement generated by the signing of Afellay earlier this summer. The former PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona attacker certainly caught the eye in a bright debut against Liverpool last week.
The opening 25 minutes saw Afellay provide more than one example of his skill and ability to take on an opponent. He also showed ample desire to get into the penalty box, offering a back-post option for the advancing Glen Johnson down the right wing.
Although outmuscled by Liverpool players a couple of times, the early signs are the rhythms of his new playing environment should not prove too alien to the Dutchman. With a game under his belt, the next step will be for him to try and influence games even closer to goal.
Should both start, Afellay will face an intriguing duel on the left against Spurs right-back Walker. Despite his own goal, the England international enjoyed one of his best performances of the year, getting the better of Ashley Young, a player who had caused Spurs a number of problems in March (indeed, the north Londoners' whole defence looked surprisingly organised for the most part).
On his day, Afellay can be just as bewitching as the Manchester United winger. He will need to be prepared to keep at it if Walker is on his game again.
Key Battle: Can Spurs' Attack Come to Life Against Stout Stoke?
Tottenham started and finished against Manchester United in near-dominant fashion.
Christian Eriksen twice nearly had the beating of 'keeper Sergio Romero while Nacer Chadli and Dembele joined in with striker Harry Kane in creating some eye-pleasing interchanges drifting in from the flanks. Davies and Walker contributed supporting width from their full-back positions.
Alas, it was just the middle 50 minutes in which they struggled to comprehend they were capable of causing United problems if they wanted to.
United's own motivated-looking defence was unlikely to be beaten easily, but a little more bravery might have paid off for Spurs. It was as if they feared they might fall to the same kind of defeat they suffered on the ground earlier this year if they got too adventurous.
As already noted, back home Pochettino will almost certainly make some adjustments to the rightly cautious XI he selected for Week 1. But even with the addition of a Lamela or a Pritchard, the question remains as to whether Spurs have the courage of their convictions, to trust in their ability as an attack.
Too often last season, a clear lack of confidence gave way to a lack of imagination and, at times, effort in their forward work. Changes throughout the campaign—such as Kane's promotion to full-time first-team duty—helped inject periodic boosts, but they only lasted so long before another tough game had the north Londoners doubting themselves.
Stoke will do their utmost to create such doubts. Through the battling Van Ginkel and Whelan in midfield, back to the smart reading employed by Cameron and Muniesa closing off routes, they are more than capable of doing so, too.
Following on from Manchester United, this will be another exacting test of just how much Spurs have improved in their aspirations to become a more consistent attacking unit. For Stoke, this is another opportunity to prove they are one of the Premier League's toughest defences, even without their skipper Ryan Shawcross.
Odds (via Odds Shark)
Tottenham win: 5/7
Stoke win: 19/5
Draw: 14/5
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