Swansea City vs Tottenham Hotspur – Preview

A season that started so slowly and had fans prematurely reaching for their torches and pitch-forks could see Tottenham Hotspur in 3rd in time for the season’s second international break.

The opening few weeks were a bedding-in period, allowing new players to slot in and old players to re-conform to Pochettino’s style.

Toby Alderweireld, Heung-Min Son and Dele Alli have proven to be the missing pieces of the Tottenham puzzle, whilst the likes of Eric Dier, Erik Lamela and Ben Davies have stepped up when needed.

Tottenham are a current example of a set of good (not great) players showing that consistency and discipline can trump star quality – the current demises of Chelsea and Liverpool reaffirm this.

If we are to claim 3rd, then we will have to see off Garry Monk’s Swansea City. After a fast start, the Swans have been brought back down to Earth recently, and have claimed just one point from one of the last nine available.

Swansea’s record vs Spurs is amongst the worst in the Premier League too – the North Londoners have won the last seven meetings, and are undefeated since 1991.

So why is this? Has it been a matter of Tottenham being a bogey team to the South Wales outfit? Bad/good luck? Consistency?

In my opinion, it’s the style of football. Ever since returning to the top flight in 2011, Swansea have been amongst the most entertaining and enjoyable sides to watch. Then again, we too can boast this sentiment – the so called “Tottenham Way” has been in full swing for a number of years now, and it’s hard to match.

If a team tries to beat Tottenham at their own game, they get turned over pretty easily – Swansea share similar ideologies to Spurs, but are not superior.

Let’s look at where it went wrong for Swansea in our previous three encounters…

Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 Swansea City (04/03/2015, Premier League)

Bafetimbi Gomis collapsed in an incident eerily similar to that concerning Fabrice Muamba in 2012, but thankfully, the French striker was okay.

This incident immediately followed Nacer Chadli’s opener, scoring a first time volley from a wonderfully whipped cross from Danny Rose.

Swansea seemed unfazed by the incident involving their now talismanic striker, with Ki Sung-Yeung equalising soon after.

Brilliant second half goals from Andros Townsend and soon-to-be England star Ryan Mason looked to have wrapped up the points for the home side, but not before former Spur Gylfi Sigurdsson gave us a scare late on.

Swansea City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur (14/12/2014, Premier League)

Starting at number 10, Harry Kane opened proceedings early on with a towering header, continuing his good run of form since nailing down a place in the starting eleven.

Reported summer of 2014 target Wilfried Bony did well to make mincemeat of Federico Fazio early in the second half, equalising for the Swans.

Both sides continued to press for a winner, and with a minute to go, Christian Eriksen scored one of many late goals that winter to seal the points for Tottenham.

Swansea City 1-3 Tottenham Hotspur (19/01/2014, Premier League)

Two foals from the in-form Emmanuel Adebayor helped Tim Sherwood’s Spurs to an impressive 3-1 win at the Liberty Stadium.

Christian Eriksen too was instrumental in the Welsh city, tormenting the Swans defence with his trickery and delivery.

A Chico Flores own goal put us three to the good, before Wilfried Bony scored a consolation with ten minutes to go.

Unbelievably, this put us level on points with 4th placed Liverpool, and left Swansea just three points above rock bottom rivals Cardiff City.

For our next encounter, Spurs will be without six players at the Liberty Stadium – Danny Rose picked up a finger injury against Monaco, whilst Heung-Min Son (foot), Ryan Mason (knee), Nabil Bentaleb, Alex Pritchard and Mousa Dembele (all ankle) aren’t expected to return until after the international break. On the other hand, Swansea have 0 (yes, zero) injury concerns.

Mauricio Pochettino is without a doubt one of the main contenders for the Premier League’s Manager of the Month award for September – one more win before the international break could really show what’s to come in this long term project.

Predicted XI: Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Dier, Alli; Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli; Kane