AFCB Vital Match Zone

New Spurs Ground – New Manager in Jose Mourinho

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Written by billythekid

A disappointing home defeat against Wolves on Saturday. It’s a pity the full team in the first half didn’t reflect the fighting spirit of the ten-man squad of the second half and hope we see our team play as they did in the second 45 minutes when they travel up to London to face Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs). It will also be the first time our club and their fans will be visiting this new stadium which by media reports say cost more to build than the new Wembley Stadium. For the fans, they will be closer to the action so probably a better atmosphere than in some other modern stadiums, with the maximum distance from the pitch to stand being just under 26 feet. It is also a cash-free stadium. In one of the national newspapers (April 2019) they rated the various Premier League stadiums, the London Stadium came bottom with a score of just under 5/10 and the Tottenham Stadium just over 9/10, way ahead of the others, our stadium came 18th with just over 5/10. So hopefully whatever the result, our fans will have an enjoyable visit in a ‘real football atmosphere’, be interesting to hear the feedback if that is the case.

Spurs v AFCB

Tottenham Win

Tottenham Win

Draw

Draw

AFCB Win

This is probably not the best time to be playing Spurs as they have just appointed a new manager and this will be his first home Premier League game in charge. His new club had an indifferent start to the season. The new Spurs manager is Jose Mourinho, he has been appointed to replace Mauricio Pochettino who had been the Spurs manager since May 2014. Mourinho’s previous clubs included Chelsea (twice), Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United. In his first game in charge which was away, his side came away with all three points.

In the Summer Spurs signed midfielder Tanguy Ndombele for a club-record £63 million from Lyon.
Another signing was Ryan Sessegnon a player who can play either left-back or on the wing. He signed for an undisclosed fee from Fulham. Amongst other signings, they signed Jack Clarke a winger from Leeds, but he is staying at his old club on loan. Another player on loan is midfielder Giovani Lo Celso from Real Betis. A player that has left Spurs is Kieran Trippier, who has joined Atletico Madrid.

Spurs opened the season with a win at home against newly-promoted Aston Villa. For their first away game they travelled up to Manchester to play last years title-winning side City, it ended honours even. The last game of the month saw a surprising result, with Spurs losing at home against Newcastle United. The next two games were in London, first away to their close neighbours and rivals Arsenal, the game ended in a draw. Spurs won their next home game beating Crystal Palace. They travelled up to Leicester and came away with nothing. The end of September Spurs won their second home game in a row by beating Southampton. Then came the start of a poor run of results. They lost at Brighton, drew at home with Watford. This was followed by two games running up on Merseyside. First, they lost against Liverpool and then drew with Everton. Their next game was the last for manager Mauricio Pochettino as his side drew with another newly promoted side, Sheffield
United. Their last game was away where under Mourinho, they beat West Ham.

Eddie Howe’s record against Jose Mourinho is W 1, D 1, L 4. The win was away at Chelsea in December 2015, shortly before Mourinho was sacked. The first defeat was in August 2016 at Dean Court. Also, that season AFCB drew at Old Trafford in March 2017. In December 2017 Mourinho’s team beat us on their own ground and also beat us at Dean Court in April 2018. The last time Eddie pitted his wits against Mourinho was in November 2018 at Dean Court, Mourinho came out on top for the fourth time out of six meetings. A month later he departed Old Trafford, the same month but one day later than when he left Chelsea three years earlier.

Our record in the Premier League up in London against Tottenham Hotspur hasn’t been good. Losing four times, with the last meeting being the heaviest by 5-0. So played 4, Lost 4. So far AFCB have conceded 13 goals and scored none at White Hart Lane. Will playing at their new next-door stadium be any better? In all our games against Spurs including the FA Cup. AFCB have W 2, D 1, L 6.

Spurs Team News
Injury news, Goalkeepers Hugo Lloris has an elbow injury and Michel Vorm calf injury. Midfielder Erik Lamela has a hamstring injury. Their latest injury is left-back Ben Davies with an ankle injury picked up against West Ham.

Spurs Player To Watch
That name again, Harry Kane. After regularly scoring for England and has scored 7 in the Premier League this season. Another player who likes scoring against the Cherries is Heung-Min Son who has 4 goals and 4 assists in the league this season.

AFCB Team News
When things seem to be improving on the injury front, we now have more. The latest being Dominic Solanke who picked up a hamstring injury in the half-time warm-up against Wolves. It was also reported that Ryan Fraser had a dead leg, but decided to carry on. Otherwise, it is the usual names who have been missing for a while. Josh King is doubtful to be fit for Saturday, otherwise according to the injury website Andrew Surman and Lloyd Kelly are close to a return. Two players who will be missing are Philip Billing and Simon Francis who will be suspended.

AFCB Player To Watch
After coming on in the second half against Wolves, Arnaut Danjuma (the flying Dutchman) seemed to have got an injection in his pace from when I have seen him before. He has skill, can hold on to the ball. Hopefully, we are starting to see the player who not long ago was attracting interest from top English clubs and some abroad.

Lee Mason is the referee for this game. Had him this season at home against Norwich. Not been in charge of any Spurs games yet.

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