English Premier League's Tuesday Matches Previews: Nov. 9, 2010

Joe LazarNov 8, 2010

Stoke vs Birmingham

Stoke will be missing defender Shawcross, who is serving a one match ban after his sending off against Sunderland. Begovic is continuing to start in goal in place of Sorenson. For the most part, Stoke’s team is in full working order, there is only the one long term absentee to worry about and the previously mentioned suspension, which is good news seeing as the home side could really use a win, considering they are hovering just above the relegation zone. Stoke don’t have a particularly good record against Birmingham recently in fact it is pretty much terrible losing three of their last four meetings in all competitions.

McLeish is likely to abandon the 4-3-1-2 formation after last week’s miserable draw against West Ham. Birmingham have been pretty much useless going forward even with using an attacking formation, only scoring six times in their last eight matches. Their record away from home has been abysmal, so a win here would be a bit of a shocking result, they haven’t even won a single away match since the start of the season. This will be a difficult game for Birmingham and their best odds of picking up any points at all will be if they can salvage a draw.

Tottenham vs Sunderland

Van de Vaart might make an appearance although it is possible that the Dutch star won’t be risked considering the fact that he has not fully recovered and he has been nursing this hamstring injury for some time now.

Lennon, Keane and Gallas are also doubtful, Gallas having picked up a knock against Bolton. Tottenham have started to show that their injury list is causing them some serious problems, their poor performance against Bolton highlighted the weaknesses that were certain to show at some point, considering the fact they are missing half of their squad. On the bright side their home performances have been a little bit better than the one they gave at the Reebok Stadium, they have only lost one of their last 16 home matches.

Sunderland may, at first glance, look to be in a good position here with Tottenham being a side comprised of the walking wounded. The problem is however that they may be without Bent, who has been responsible for the vast majority of their goals so far this season. Then there is also the fact that they have only won one of their last 23 away games in the Premiership. This could be a difficult match for the "Black Cats", although this is probably the best chance they are going to get at beating Tottenham at home.