Premier League preview: Blackpool vs Tottenham

Premier League match time returns to Bloomfield Road with Blackpool set to host Tottenham on Tuesday 22 February in a first leg match originally scheduled to be played in December and postponed due to bad weather.

Blackpool come out of a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa in match week 27. Agbonlahor put the visitors ahead for 10 minutes, but after Grandin got the home side level 4 minutes later, Blackpool’s back-line stood up for Villa’s attack for the best part of 76 minutes to catch a point from the game. Typically, Blackpool went on the attack after the interval, and despite losing Makoun, the red card after a hard tackle on Campbell for 70 minutes, the visitors did not allow Blackpool to break their defense. But Villa would have rightly felt saddened by referee Howard Webb’s refusal to give a penalty in injury time. In the end, Ian Hollway would have been happy to get a point from a team that was obviously superior on the day after his side had not added a point in five consecutive เลื่อนแข่งพรีเมียร์.

Tottenham knocked full points in game week 27 and climbed up to 4th place in the Premier League table as they won 2-1 away at Sunderland. The Black Cats started brilliantly when Gyan gave them an early lead of 11 minutes. But the class will tell it and a minute before the break Dawson helped Tottenham draw level; Kranjcar’s strike 12 minutes after the interval finally solved the problem for Spurs. Sunderland’s defense on the day was uneven and Bent’s departure appears to have hurt the side that clearly need another striker. Kranjcar, underrated in the presence of Modric and Van der Vaart, emphasized his value to the White Hart Lane team on the day many of their best players were absent.

Head to head, Tottenham and Blackpool have never met in the league. They last played each other in the Carling Cup in 2007, a game that Spurs won 2-0.

Of their last 10 league matches, Blackpool have won 3, drawn one and lost 6, while Tottenham have won 6 of their last 10, while they have drawn 3 and lost 1. In 12 matches hosted this season, Blackpool have 3 red wins and draws each, while the remaining 6 lose; Tottenham have won 6 of 13 away games, while they have drawn 3 and lost 4.

In its current form, Blackpool must consider themselves lucky if they can knock a point from the game.

Blackpool had the following start eleven against Villa: Kingson, Baptiste, Evatt, Cathcart, Adam, Vaughan, Grandin, Campbell, Harewood and Varney. Reid, Puncheon and Phillips were used as substitutes.

Tottenham’s starting eleven against Sunderland consisted of: Gomes, Corluka, Dawson, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto, Pienaar, Jenas, Sandro, Kranjcar, Defoe and Pavlyuchenko. Lennon and Palacios highlighted as replacements.