It's North London vs South London at Selhurst Park as Spurs look to hit the international break on a winning note. Don't be deceived by the Eagles record, this is a London derby and they will be fired up to put one over on us. Our last 4 games against them have ended 1-0 to the good guys, and Poch's pre-match comments suggest he is leaning on resting our most creative players in Eriksen and Deli for the trip across the Thames. If that is the case, we will struggle to create chances in attack, as we lack quality when one or both are not in the starting XI. Injury-wise, the news is a little more positive as Dier and Wanyama have returned to training and now only Vertonghen, Rose and Dembélé (out until January) remain on the injured list. PS: A special shout out to local club Haringey Borough FC from the 7th tier of English football who have reached the 1st round of the FA Cup and will host AFC Wimbledon from League 1 at Coles Park on White Hart Lane, a stone's throw from the new ground. They are expecting a record crowd of 2,500 for the game which will be televised live on the BBC tonight. It's nice to know that some football is being played at White Hart Lane this fall! PS2: Wouldn't it be something if Haringey get all the way to the 3rd round and are drawn against Spurs? Now that would be the mother of all derbies with just a couple of blocks between the two grounds!
No Zaha for Palace, that's huge. Team has a few weak points- Sissoko and Wanyama the central pair for a start, and Foyth starts again at CB but our bench is ridiculous - Eriksen, Son, Winks, Dier, Llorente, Aurier and Gazzaniga Lloris; Trippier, Foyth, Alderweireld, Davies; Sissoko, Wanyama; Lucas, Dele, Lamela; Kane
3 points, clean sheet. Just, big chance for Palace at the end, Lloris coming up big. 12 played, 8 away from home. Won 7 of those 8. Still 4th, but pressure on the big boys.
It's a tough start to the season, and well done to keep in the running, grinding them out. Job done, again, today.
One of our better passing games with very few of the sloppy giveaways that have plagued us for most of the season as we win the Sissoko derby. I thought Deli was excellent and controlled the game in midfield. Wanyama is starting to look like the Wanyama we know and love. It was always going to be a difficult game considering the conditions and the way Woy likes to set up his teams. Elsewhere, it wasn't to be for the Haringey lads as they lost on a last-minute deflected goal to AFC Wimbledon in front of a record crowd of 2,710 at Coles Park. And our old boy Pritchard scored for Huddersfield to prevent West Ham Canning Town London from taking all 3 points.
Pritchard's looked pretty good whenever I've seen him for Huddersfield (which isn't a whole lot). I'm sure Poch knows what he's doing, and it's probably fair to say that he's not the quality that would get minutes in our squad, but he was one I really hated to see go. good luck to him.
Another game, another uneven 90 minutes. It will be interesting to see how this season goes, if we can continue to get results from sub-par performance and with any luck finding some health/continuity at some point – it could be a decent season. Alternatively, much like the the stadium, we could just be caught in a season of external events/overly optimistic assessments of where things stand.
Through 12 matches, we are actually 4 points better off than last season. Interestingly, our GF-GA is almost identical (20-10 vs 20-9). Games 10-15 were our worst stretch last season where we went 1-2-3.