Team news and expected line up vs Sunderland

After a successful international break, Tottenham travel to struggling Sunderland in search of their first win of the season.

In this fixture last season, we lost the lead twice in a 2-2 draw with goals from Nacer Chadli and Christian Eriksen in an exciting, yet disappointing game.

New signing Heung Min Son is expected to start and all eyes will be on the South Korean after his hat trick vs Laos in the week.

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Main man Harry Kane regained his scoring touch with two goals in two games with England vs San Marino and Switzerland.

Christian Eriksen is set to miss out again with a knee injury and Mousa Dembele is doubtful with the injury he picked up vs Everton which also put him out of international duty will Belgium. Other new signing Clinton N’Jie is close to full fitness.

Mauricio said:
“Christian is close but not yet fit. Mousa is doubtful. Clinton is also close and Sonny is in better condition because he has played, scored three goals for South Korea and he has trained well this week.”

'Always when Tottenham play it is important to win. We need to start to win the games because our performances have been good but in football it is all about the results.

'I think against Everton we competed much better than we did against Leicester and Stoke City. I think that we improve our level of focus during the game and now we need to follow in the same way. We have the quality to win the game.'

The team news for Sunderland is that Scottish international Steven Fletcher is set to miss out with a knock he picked up in training. Jordi Gomez and Adam Johnson will not feature after long term injuries and new signing DeAndre Yedlin cannot play against his parent club.

Ryan Mason is feeling confident about the trip to Wear side.
“We’re confident and there is no reason not to be. We feel we’ve probably outplayed every team we’ve faced this season and we’ve certainly deserved more.
“Sunderland is a big game and we all want that winning feeling back as soon as possible. Hopefully we’ll go up there and do exactly that.”

Lloris said:
“To be honest we’ve been a bit unlucky over the last month because we’ve done a lot of positive things but we haven’t been rewarded for that and we’ve lost some points, so now we need to recover those points and we hope to start this weekend at Sunderland,” said the 28-year-old, who was in goal for our consecutive draws against Stoke, Leicester and Everton last month.
“I think we need to find our confidence as quickly as possible and to do that we need to win the next game.
“It’s important for the confidence of the team, individually and collectively, to get the three points.”

Vertonghen said:
“Obviously we want to win at Sunderland, but we want to win every game we play,” said the 28-year-old.
“At the end of the day we want to fight for the top places in the table so there is a bit of pressure on us to win this weekend, but not any more than normal in my view. We’re fully focused on going there and getting the result we need.”

Walker said:
"If we keep playing how we’ve been playing, the results will come,"
"If we get one win, we’ll get on a roll. It’s all about momentum and confidence and as soon as we get that, we'll be flying."
"They haven't had the best of starts but we know they still have quality throughout that squad,"
"We all know what Jermain Defoe can do in and around the box, so we'll have to be switched on throughout. Younes Kaboul has just gone there as well. He was a fantastic servant to the club and taught me a lot when I first arrived, so I always be thankful for that.”

Predicted line up

Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose; Dier, Bentaleb; Son Mason Chadli; Kane.

 

That Son/Mason/Chadli looks a pretty flexible 3, so they should be swapping positions every 5 minutes to swamp the sh*ttest defence in the league! Should be a good game

 

3 points is a must. Dropping points to Sunderland would be unacceptable. IMO weakest team in the league and fully expect 3 points and a goal difference boost! COYS

 

Morning All.
It's interesting that we're all pretty much seeing as a win and a must-win in equal measures. We need a win, they are poor, we should beat them, so we most definitely would view it as a disaster if we didn't come away with three points and a good result.
That we are short of key players is disappointing, particularly not getting a look at N'jie. Heh Ho.
Let's take the game to them for the 90, so see if we can brush them aside.
COYS

 

With the team announced, Son and Alli could well be the key here - looks an exciting team though

 

I find it funny how the contributors that constantly bemoan 'negativity' and are so opposed to it from the bloggers they come out attacking peoples 'agendas' brand them as having lower IQs call them plastic and fickle yet don't ever seem to be eager to write a piece when we have won.
Where are these true real fans ?

 

Now now Felon , we,ve just got our first 3 points of the season , strangly enough it came after prob our least impressive performance from general play so far , against prob the poorest team in the league so far , def the poorest team we,ve played yet .. Early days for everyone but its very hard to predict what's going to happen , there seems to be very little between everyone so far bar City ...

 

Good to get three points. But we still seem to have no set idea of our tactics.

 

I found today a fairly painful to watch, despite the first win.
Early on we seemed to be all over the place. Starting two new in the midfield three soon looked to be risky, with Chadli absent as per usual and Alli thinking he was a striker, showing no discipline at all. This isn't Division 1. A better team would have been out of sight early on.
Luck was with us today and whilst JD should have put his chance away, our overall shape was poor, including the regular slow pace and no width. We didn't create anything until late on.
Pluses...mmmm. Dier, Verts, Mason, Townsend even when he came on and started to create openings.
Minuses. Full backs - not sure. Davies seems edgy to me. Chugger Chadli. Harry just trying too hard.
I watched Leicester/Villa afterwards - more enjoyable and Timmy got Villa playing better football than we have delivered this season.
COYS

 

Tim May have villa playing nice football but they will be in the bottom 4 this season. He is enthusiastic but that's about it.
I agree that the shape today was poor. I thought Townsend showed drive when he came on and did well. Dier is becoming a great player and maturing every week.
Kane needs more help. Son looks good but Kane still looked isolated. Off the ball he is astute but Kane needs to just stop trying quite so hard.
Chadli is so bloody frustrating. It's like Rocket Ronny has come back!!!
The defence is still poor. Davies, I'm sorry to say, is truly awful. I watched him the other night for Wales and he is naive and not good going forward. Rose is much better and had to play.
Alli is young and yes he was at times cavalier but he actually offered something different. I like him and see him as a regular starter.
It could have been 2-2, 3-3 anything today and other than the woodwork it could have been a defeat.

But it wasn't. We won. But now we have Europe on Thursday and then Palace at home on Sunday.
3 welcome points today but if we play like we did today on Sunday, we will be beaten.

And the Europa hangover is no excuse!! Let's build on 3 points but I am still left wondering exactly what Pochettino's tactics are.

 

Perhaps Matt we will see Trippier on Thursday, to form a view and some game time for Rose, in advance of a Sunday start. Davies for Europe, Rose for the PL.
Still feel goals will be hard to find this season. No goals in 10 for Harry is starting to be a concern.

 

Villa got drilled tho! Timmy tactically inept. Onto spurs tho performance was always gonna be irrelevant today was always about result which was undeserved but much needed. Chadli for me is a passenger. No pace skill guile or ability to deliver crosses. Gets away with it due to his uncanny knack of getting goals. Which is fine if your in a top side which can carry you. Seen players like poyet platt rob Lee make careers out of it.
Only seen first half but heard second wasn't much better. Alli impressed me with his willingness to link up with HK but surprised me how physically strong he is and bought some clever free kicks. Son another who caught my eye. Not spectacular by any means but like how he comes off the line popping up in different areas not letting the game pass him by like others. He will be an asset with his two footed abilities.
Dier is doing a job for the side but nothing more than that for me.. Looked immobile at times especially when in advanced positions dallying on the ball but tbf doesn'teedlessly give the ball away in mid. Think we seriously lack in centre mid players who can move play through the lines quickly enough such as a carrick can. Can't wait for njie to start to inject some much needed pace and feel that he and son starting strangely will omit pressure from Townsend and lamela to perform when they are introduced in the EPL. I expect both to feature in the Europa where they can be given more time to play their way into form rather than in the pressured environment of the first team which in they are desperatley needed to perform. The Europa has come around at a time where certain players need game time to showcase what they can do and put the first 11 under pressure to perform such as trippier Carroll wimmer.

 

Thankful for the win although did not play that well. Big concern for me was Toby nearly giving another penalty away on another day would have been given. More than happy for Deli to get forward. It is massive leap from league 1 to premier league and needs to be encouraged even if it costs us on occasions. Dier another solid performance. Harry just trying too hard but will come good. A cameo from Lamela hinting there is a player there but will we ever see it over 90 minutes. Would like to see Trippier given a go believe his use of ball will be better than Walker. Overall pleased we came on strong at end and did not wilt. Great to see Mason run beyond ball for goal

 

Worst performance. First 3 points. Pochettino's Tottenham.

 

This is a valid point. Thanks, Felon 82

I will go straight to doing assessments seeing no point is describing how has game progressed before ending in desirable victory:

Kane - 5
Harry was very poor. Hope it will go away the way MP suggested. If not, there will be criticism of Spurs not getting 40 million for him.
Son - 4
First game. Little to no impression for South Korean. Nervous, hesitant, weak.
Alli - 7
Strong and confident showing for the youngster. Plays Spurs way already. Most of the touches are memorable.
Chadli - 6
Nothing to praise for or complain about. Was not a burden, nor was an asset either
Mason - 9
Even without a goal would have deserved MoM.
Dier - 8
Practically fully responsible for clean sheet. Lost MoM to Mason only because of the goal scored.
Walker, Toby - 6
Should be thankful to Dier for the help provided.
Verthongen, Davies, Lloris - 7
Solid, yet unspectacular performance. No complains, keep it up, Verts, Hugo and Ben!

Subs:

Townsend - 8
Huge improvement over Son. Positively changed the Spurs attack.
Lamela - 7
Played Eriksen spot very much like injured Dane - from natural non-inversed left to center - resulted in critical assist on fantastic only goal scored.

MP - 8
Spurs HC won this match by making (for a change!) better substitutions than his counter part.

 

3 points at last! And another clean sheet! COYS. But let's not get carried away, Hugo was left exposed far too frequently today - there is certainly a lot of work to do on the training ground. Incredibly disjointed at times.

We miss Eriksen, need Njie and Rose currently looks to be the better option at LB. I thought Dier put in a solid performance (again) and Townsend actually provided some much needed impetus up top when he came on. I'm sure we will improve with more games to come.

Palace and City up next in the PL; 4 points has to be the minimum IMO. Kane must get firing PDQ.

As for Timmy, dear oh dear... well rid. Tactically inept; shocking substitutions from him today.

 

More worrying signs then promising ones today for sure but 3 points and getting rid of Adebayor is a pretty good Sunday ..

 

First win is always a struggle. It's about getting over the line, be it first game of the season or 5th. We can only get better from here, Lamela and Townsend look useful, while the defence still looks ****. Unconvinced by Toby and Jan as of yet.