Tottenham’s ‘Great’ Season Will Continue on Tuesday

Harry Redknapp insisted his Tottenham side can have a “great” season after their 2-1 victory at Aston Villa on Boxing Day. He has previously declared they are legitimate contenders for both the Premier League and Champions League this season. I’d like to see them against Barcelona…

Credit where credit is due, his side moved to within 1 point of 4th place Chelsea and 2 of 3rd place Arsenal after their win on Sunday, with the two title challengers facing each other later today. Tottenham are certainly looking competitive for a top 4 spot right now. But 7 points behind Manchester United is too much to ask of Harry’s side.

Back to reality, and Tottenham are back in action on Tuesday, as is 70% of the Premier League as they host Newcastle at White Hart Lane. Alan Pardew suffered his first defeat as Newcastle manager on boxing day, in, well, only his second game. They were on the back foot right from the start as defensive mistakes help Manchester City to a 2-0 lead in 5 minutes.

Newcastle don’t play as bad as their team looks on paper and created chances even at 1-2 to salvage something from the game that may have thrown more questions into the air about Roberto Mancini’s capabilities. But coming all the way down to London just two days after that defeat is a lot to ask of Alan Pardew and his side. Especially taking on one of the final 16 teams in this season’s Champions League and a top 4 challenger in the Premier League. More importantly, this Newcastle side are going to struggle with the attacking prowess that Tottenham possess.

Rafael van der Vaart scored both goals in their victory at Villa Park on Sunday, and provided the Dutch man is fit enough to go again, he can pull the strings in midfield once again. Newcastle’s two centre backs aren’t the quickest and they do allow strikers to move beyond them unnoticed. Jermain Defoe’s suspension will be a big loss for Tottenham in this match, but both Robbie Keane and Roman Pavlyuchenko can beat this defence, with the service van der Vaart and Luka Modric are capable of delivering. Gareth Bale’s pace may be matched by Danny Simpson, while Newcastle can deal with crosses from open play. This should nulify Alan Hutton. Aaron Lennon can still cause problems though with his pace down the right wing, up against Jose Enrique. Should he come up against the likes of Steven Taylor or Fabricio Coloccini I would expect Newcastle fans to be nervous.

Defensively, dealing with Andy Carroll is going to be Tottenham’s biggest problem. His aerial ability is a threat; scoring 5 headers so far this season. Not conceding free kicks around the box is essential for Tottenham, with the deliveries that Joey Barton has been putting in the box this season. Tottenham will go into this match looking for their first clean sheet since opening day. Should they not get it, I still expect them to outscore their opponent, as I successfully predicted they would in my betting tips for boxing day.

I’ve just taken Tottenham at 1.57 to beat Newcastle with Betfair, 1.9 with -1 goal on the asian handicap and over 2.5 goals is 1.75.