Sunderland-vs-Tottenham

Tottenham travel to the north-east with three of their most influential players at the cusp of returning to first team action. Rafael van der Vaart (calf) is the most likely to feature, as he sustained a minor calf injury in last weekend’s game against Bolton. Gareth Bale (back) is touch and go, and may well start from the bench with Tuesday’s Champions League tie against AC Milan just round the corner. While Luka Modric (appendicitis) is expected to miss out on the visit to Sunderland.

Other absentees for Spurs include Younes Kaboul (knee) who isn’t expected back until the middle of next month, as well as Tom Huddlestone (ankle) who is also out for at least another month. Ledley King (groin) remains on the sidelines.

Peter Crouch missed England’s midweek 2-1 victory over Denmark but is expected to return to the starting line-up for the trip to Sunderland.

Possible starting XI: Gomes; Corluka, Gallas, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto; Lennon, Palacios, Jenas, Pienaar; Crouch, Defoe.

Champions League focus

The race for the Champions League spots is hotting up, and with a trip to the San Siro to face AC Milan to come on Tuesday Harry Redknapp’s men will be fully aware that they’ll need to come to places like the Stadium of Light looking for three points to stay in the hunt. Sunderland have only lost twice at home this season, but Spurs will be heartened to know that these defeats both came in their last eight games – with the most recent coming in their last home game against Chelsea.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out who the side on form is. Sunderland have only won three of their last eight games, drawing once and losing the rest; while Spurs have won five, drawn twice and only lost once – away to Everton at the beginning of January. That said, Spurs are a lot more vulnerable on the road, of the five defeats they’ve sustained this season four of them have been away from White Hart Lane. They also had a tough time cracking the Sunderland nut in the reverse fixture, which they drew 1-1.

.goal.com

save crouch for tues and give pav a game.
bench bale and vdv stop rushing them back.

gomez
charlie galas woodgate ekotto
lennon wp jenas krankar
super pav defoe

cudichini vdv bale daws crouch modric pienar

Bale, VD Vaart & Modric all out,,,,, ?????

or being saved for AC??

bloody hell crouch cant even get injurid for a week lol

Lought you know that he's Harrys little blue eyed boy!, cant you feel the LOVE?

Moi??

i feel pain everytime i see lennon and bale put a cross in and the beanpole atttempt to get on the end of a cross lol

I feel pain every time that Mutton runs past Lennon and cant get a cross in, coz he's crap!!!

Such is life.

i see pain everytime i see corluka try and run down the wing lol

hutton aint crap. corluka was playing bad and hutton came in and done well and got us a goal and a pen when we was struggling at wolves.

hutton is not the best defender but makes up for it with hes runs up feild.

how can you blame hutton for lennon hidin when he gets the ball or passes sideways.

have you noticed lennons best games recently have been on the left side

Dont make me laugh, Mutton cant cross, his passing is dire, and he's always out of position for defending, i would much rather see charlie in that position, at least he can link up with lennon, mutton takes him out of the game with his no result runs!!

i think corluka a better defender but hutton has done well in a most of hes games since hes been back. i just hope he dont ignore him for good now. play charlie some games and play hutton some games. ilove hutton agression in the tackle.

Wont matter, cos next season Walker will be our right back!!

charlie looked good in the last game, gave his all and is fighting for his place, hutton has improved alot this season, but i would stick with charlie who does indeed link up much better with lennon and has better passing & vision than hutton. Lennon also switches from right to left during the game, good tic tacs !

Tottenham leapfrogged Chelsea and moved up to fourth in the Premier League table after coming from behind to beat Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

With William Gallas off the field changing his boots, Asamoah Gyan's skilful finish opened the scoring.

But Spurs equalised on the stroke of half-time through Michael Dawson's thunderous header direct from a corner.

Niko Kranjcar had an excellent game and the Croat gave the visitors all three points with a terrific volley.

The north Londoners can now travel to Milan for their Champions League last-16 tie in good spirits, with manager Harry Redknapp hoping to add Rafael van der Vaart to his squad should the flying Dutchman recover from the injury that kept him out of this game.

An indication that Redknapp had Tuesday's European tie at the forefront of his mind came in his starting selection.

Already robbed of leading scorer Van der Vaart because of injury, the Spurs boss also rested Peter Crouch and Aaron Lennon - but with both teams starting in a 4-4-2 formation the initial signs were encouraging for the visitors.

However, on their first genuine attack, Sunderland scored - and they did it with Tottenham needlessly down to 10 men as Gallas laced up a replacement pair of boots.

Absurdly, Gallas had already changed his mind about which length of studs was most appropriate during the warm-up - but after 10 minutes went back to his original selection.

Meanwhile, Kieran Richardson found space down the left flank, and swung a telling cross through to Gyan.

The Ghanaian, so important now for the Black Cats in the post-Darren Bent era, took one touch with his left boot before turning and firing his shot through Dawson's legs and into the bottom corner of the Tottenham goal.

One had to sympathise with Dawson, forced to mark both Gyan and the advancing midfielder Stephane Sessegnon. His job would have been half as complicated with Gallas on the field.

For 20 minutes or so, Sunderland pressed hard in midfield, while Tottenham generally laboured, both sides struggling to create meaningful opportunities.

The match proved an unedifying spectacle until Spurs won a corner following their first move of real quality, John Mensah making an important block with Jermain Defoe poised to strike.

Phil Bardsley's clearing header went out for a second corner, and this time Dawson rose majestically from Steven Pienaar's delivery to head home from near the penalty-spot.

Craig Gordon might have done better - but Gallas, intentionally or otherwise, made a screening run across the Scottish goalkeeper to block his line of sight at the crucial moment.

Unsurprisingly lifted by the goal, Spurs were the more dangerous side early in the second half.

One particularly skilful move looked like ending in a goal for Gallas, who was just inches from goal when toe-poking his shot straight at Gordon.

A rare Sunderland break saw Richardson feed Steed Malbranque, but his shot was cleared away by Dawson before Spurs launched another attack.

This time, Sandro made the critical break from the right flank before firing in a good cross. Titus Bramble's header away was not controlled, and Kranjcar was in exactly the right place to smack a first-time volley with finesse and power past a stranded Gordon.

Kranjcar was making only his second Premier League start of the season, but the longer the game went on the more accomplished he looked, finding plenty of space on the left-side of midfield.

With Sandro also beginning to enjoy himself in a central position alongside him, Spurs began to control affairs.

Ahmed Elmohamady came on for Malbranque as Sunderland pushed Sessegnon up to play alongside Gyan, and Spurs opted for the pace of Lennon over a tiring Pienaar for the final 15 minutes.

There were few notable exchanges towards the end of the game, and although they received some raucous support throughout Sunderland went down to their third consecutive defeat in the league.