Gareth Bale
Swansea City v Tottenham Hotspur – Saturday 31st December – Liberty Stadium (17:00)
The English Premier League’s Boxing Day results served up some drama to the title race after Manchester United capitalised on Manchester City’s draw at West Brom to bring the rivals joint on points at the top of the table. 3rd placed Tottenham Hotspur, who have 2 games in hand at the time of writing this article, will be looking to stay in touching distance of the top two when they travel to take on newly promoted Swansea City on New Years Day.
The English Premier League is a tough place for newly promoted sides and Swansea will be hoping to build on what has been a decent start to the League. They are sitting 4 places above the relegation zone before their midweek clash with QPR at home but by just 4 points. The Welsh clubs home form has undoubtedly been a platform for their ability to stay clear of the relegation zone. The Swans have lost just 1 of their 8 home matches and Manchester United’s Javier Hernandez is the only opposition player to have scored a goal at the Liberty Stadium having conceded only two at home all season, the other being an own goal in a win over Bolton. They play good attractive football and will no doubt go out to match Tottenham’s attacking style of play here.
Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham Hotspur have enjoyed a great start to the season and are the highest-placed London team at Christmas for the first time since the early 90’s. Since August Spurs have dropped only 7 points. Key players in the likes of Gareth Bale, Adebayor, Rafael van der Vaart, Luka Modric and Scott Parker are getting the team ticking and they look capable of tearing apart any Premier League defence when going forward. So well are their performances that Steven Pienaar has failed to get a look in for league games since returning from injury. Adebayor has wasted no time fitting in at Spurs scoring 9 goals so far and linking up well with his talented teammates. Their away form indicates some hope of them being only the second team to win at Swansea, but it will take a good performance to upset the newly promoted side. They have won 5 of their 8 away matches and have scored 15 goals in the process.
This should an exciting end to end match with both teams needing these crucial 3 points. Tottenham are tipped to get the goals and outdo their opponents here.
