Hello again, Spurs faithful! It’s that time of the week again as we focus on everything Tottenham Hotspur, and it’s a busy week for the Lilywhites.
ERIC DIER ON HIS PREMIER LEAGUE DEBUT! SPURS BEAT WEST HAM, 1-0!
Eric Dier, seen here while with England’s U-19 in a match against Croatia, made his Premier League debut in action for Tottenham against West Ham and notched the winning goal. Photos/Wikimedia Commons
The phrase “on his premier league debut” references back to Danny Rose, when he blasted a shot from close to 30 yards against Arsenal ten minutes into his first match in the Premier League. Eric Dier had his own debut moment in the 93rd minute of action in a match that saw two red cards and the final 30 minutes played 10 vs. 10. Harry Kane, who was subbed on for Emmanuel Adebayor, played a magnificent through ball to the streaking Dier, who had been moved to right back after Kyle Naughton’s 31st minute hand ball that led to his sending off. Dier would play a brilliant first touch past West Ham GK Adrian before slotting it home coolly. A striker’s finish, if I’ve ever seen one.
The Boleyn Ground, otherwise known as Upton Park, has not been an easy place for Spurs to play in recent memory, but this will add to the heroics of late winners for Spurs and provide a great building block for Dier as the 20-year-old may find himself playing in far more Premier League matches than expected if he keeps this up. Daniel Levy may very well have pulled off a coup, having paid just £4 million for Dier from Sporting CP.
PREVIEW: SPURS TAKE ON AEL LIMASSOL IN CYPRUS FOR FIRST LEG OF EUROPA LEAGUE PLAYOFF
This is not a great draw for Spurs. There were many other clubs that would have provided easy advancement. AEL Limassol, however, is a very good side, ranked in the Top 100 in UEFA Coefficient, and also boast a victory over Zenit St. Petersburg in Champions’ League qualification, even though the Russian side won the two leg playoff rather comfortably, 3-1, thanks in part to a 3-0 drubbing in St. Petersburg.
Limassol have a fairly strong side that has a couple of familiar names, the most notable being midfielder Diego Barcelos, who played for the Brazil U20 squad back in 2004-2005. His career never truly materialized, but he is still a quality midfielder that leads this attack.
It’s difficult to pick a Starting XI for Spurs in this one, but with the various postings on Twitter from the club and players, here’s an idea of what we could expect:
GK: Friedel / Vorm
DEF: Naughton, Dawson, Veljkovic, Davies/Rose
CDM: Sandro, Paulinho
MID: Lennon, Holtby, Townsend
ST: Soldado/Kane
The match should be on BeIN Sports, though it may get moved back later in the day to a replay, with a kickoff time of 12:00 PM EDT, though this is subject to change.
PREMIER LEAGUE PREVIEW: SPURS VS QPR, SUNDAY
Queens Park Rangers have made their return to the Premier League after just one season of relegation to the Championship. This side, however, is not that threatening. QPR did manage a couple of good signings that included Steven Caulker from relegated side Cardiff City and ex-Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, but it didn’t seem to help much as they fell to Hull City on opening matchday, 1-0, at home.
QPR lines up in a 3-5-2 that features the aforementioned Caulker and Ferdinand taking the outside CB positions, sandwiching Richard Dunne in the middle. This back line did not look very comfortable throughout most of the match.
The two striker combination of Loic Remy and Charlie Austin up top did provide some spark that included 19 total shots, but just six of those were actually on target. Still, you can expect these two to be at the top of Harry Redknapp’s 3-5-2.
Spurs will probably not change too terribly much, even on just two days rest after their Thursday night matchup with AEL Limassol. The depth of this club will truly be fantastic in the long run as Mauricio Pochettino can rotate two full sides if he feels like it. The only issue will be Kyle Naughton being suspended due to his straight red on Saturday. Kyle Walker does not seem to be ready to play yet, so we could very well see Dier at right back again.
PROJECTED SPURS LINEUP VS QPR:
GK: Lloris
DEF: Dier, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Rose
CDM: Capoue, Bentaleb
MID: Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli
ST: Adebayor
Kickoff time on Sunday is set for 8:30 AM EDT.
