Sunday, February 3, 2013

West Brom vs Tottenham


WEST BROM

Foster
Jones, Olsson, McAuley, Ridgewell Dorrans, Mulumbu, Brunt, Thomas Morrison
Lukaku
TOTTENHAM

LlorisWalker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Assou-Ekotto
Dembele, Parker Lennon, Holtby, Bale
Defoe

Steve Clarke has no fresh injury problems and should be able to call on midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu after his nation DR Congo were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations. Liam Ridgewell may also return at the back in place of Goran Popov

Elsewhere Shane Long is pushing for a start after his goal against Everton, but Romelu Lukaku's form makes him a hard man to drop, with Marc-Antoine Fortune, Steven Reid and Claudio Yacob all in contention.

After a bizarre transfer deadline day in which he travelled to QPR without permission, only to be refused entry to the ground, Peter Odemwingie remains a West Brom player so is available, but is unlikely to feature on Sunday.

Andre Villas-Boas, meanwhile, remains without Emmanuel Adebayor and after failing to sign another striker in the January window Jermain Defoe will carry on up front.

The Tottenham boss will have to make a decision, however, in midfield as Lewis Holtby was impressive off the bench against Norwich, but with Gylfi Sigurdsson and Clint Dempsey also vying for an attacking midfield role.

William Gallas returned to the substitutes bench for the draw with the Canaries and could be in with a chance of starting as well.

DID YOU KNOW?
  • West Brom have scored just 30.3% of their goals against top-ten teams, the third worst in the league behind Swansea and Liverpool.
  • Despite their impressive start to the campaign the Baggies are now without a win in their last seven games.
  • In just nine Premier League starts for the Midlands side, Romelu Lukaku (pictured right) has scored seven times and assisted one goal.
  • Tottenham's Moussa Dembele has the third-best pass completion rate of all Premier League midfielders - 91.77% of his attempted passed ending successfully - but has the best in the final third - completing 88%.
  • Spurs have now gone eight Premier League matches without defeat, however they have drawn half of those fixtures.
  • Following his goal against Norwich Gareth Bale has now netted 10 times in a Premier League season for the first time.
  • However, the Welshman has only managed one assist in the league compared with seven by the end of January 2012.
  • A late James Morrison equaliser rescued a point for Clarke's men in the return fixture between these two sides at White Hart Lane, Benoit Assou-Ekotto opening the scoring.

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