Saints travel up to North London to take on the Soccer Chickens and looking for their first result at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium at the 4th attempt, can they get something from a recently resurgent Spurs side.

Since Spurs moved to their new stadium Saints have visited four times and got no return, the first visit in September 2019 saw us lose to a 10 man Spurs side 2-1 with Danny Ings scoring our consolation.

In January 2020 we went up there in the FA Cup for a replay and lost 3-2 after being 2-1 up with 12 minutes to go through Shane Long & Danny Ings, but a late penalty after an appalling dive saw Spurs through in the final minutes.

Last season saw Danny Ings give us a half time lead but ex Saint Gareth Bale equalised on the hour mark and then another last minute penalty cost us even a point.

So can we change our luck and indeed can we even score given that Danny Ings won't be there for his usual goal.

The stark truth is it will be tough, Spurs lost their last outing in the Premier League 2-0 to Chelsea, but before that they haven't lost since October when Manchester united beat them on their own patch.

Indeed domestically Chelsea remain the only team to beat them since that game adding two EFL Cup semi finals to the league win.

Indeed in the 9 League games between the United & Chelsea defeats, Spurs have won 60 of them, the other 3 being draws against Everton, Liverpool and ourselves.

So if we look at the form guide then the outlook isn't good for this evening, however this is becoming a side that turns the formbook upside down and can dig in when the odds look against us, as we did at West Ham and indeed home to Spurs and Manchester City.

Ralph Hasenhuttl has a few injury issues for this evening, Lyanco & Nathan Tella are definitely out and there are then the doubts, first is Armando Broja who took a knock against Coventry and also Tino Livramento who having played 90 minutes against the same side on Saturday, may not be risked for this game and held back for Saturday's trip to Old Trafford.

The first question though is what formation will Ralph play, he has looked to a 3-4-1-2 line up of late and he could go for that again, if he does then it will be a choice of who plays at the back alongside Bednarek & Salisu, will he opt for Yan Valery or Jack Stephens.

I think he may go for a more straight forward 4-4-2 for this one. Fraser Forster in goal then a back line of Kyle Walker Peters, Jan Bednarek, Mo Salisu & Romain Perraud.

The usual Romeu & JWP in the centre with Nathan Redmond & Stuart Armstrong out wide.

Up front for this one whatever the formation I expect Che Adams & Adam Armstrong, as you can see I expect both Broja and Livramento to be rested although I would also think they would bot be on the bench.

However we line up its going to be a tough one, we have two away games in which we aren't expected to get much, we have to sit back and hope over our shoulders the bottom three don't catch up and that those just above us don't do much either.

After the trip to Manchester we have a run of games that will ultimately define the season, win them and we are looking at a top 10 finish, lose them and we are in danger of getting dragged into the mire.

But first we go to Tottenham, we showed in the draw at St Mary's we can match them for effort and battle, if we do that again this evening then hopefully we can get something out of this, but the odds are against us on this.

Perhaps it will suit us though, we can hold our back line not allow Kane and Son to get in behind us and catch them on the break.

Key tonight will be the grass, in our last two visits a piece of it has brought down a Spurs player in full flight in the closing minutes and won them a penalty, we should perhaps take our own groundsman tonight and ensure that it has been well mowed ahead of kick off.

Photo: Action Images

underweststand added 14:32 - Feb 9 As a fan of over 60 years standing, I've been really pi**ed off with many of the results that have come out of this fixture during that time. I'm glad anytime we can pick up a point against a club who Rupert Lowe once dubbed ... " North London Yobbos" and this is the kind of game where I'm glad that VAR is available rather than one which is decided by a bias referee and a couple of nervous linesmen. COYR !

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SanMarco added 14:47 - Feb 9 May I be the first to congratulate Spuds on winning 60 games in just a few weeks!! As underwest says this is rarely a lucky fixture for us. I can think of several last minute penalties and bad refereeing decisions but in the end we just need to play well and hope the luck is with us for once...
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