English Premier
2011-02-22 - Blackpool vs Tottenham Hotspur
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Premier League
Tuesday 22 February 2011 - Kickoff 8pm
This game is live on TV
Blackpool
The Premier League is still in action as many teams look to catch up from the poor weather over the Christmas period. Blackpool must be wishing they had undersoil heating at Bloomfield Road as they were in much better form in December than they are now as they face yet another side from the top 5 in the table.
Ian Holloway has seen his side enter a really bad run of form that has Blackpool slipping down the table into a relegation scrap. The Tangerines are 16th in the table and now only hold a 2 point advantage over Wigan in the final relegation spot.
Much of Blackpool's success has come away from home and Blackpool are only 3-3-6 at Bloomfield Road this season, scoring 19 goals and conceding 23. They, along with Wigan and West Ham, have won the least amount of games at home in the Premier League.
The run of form recently has seen Blackpool win just 1 of their last 10 games in all competitions. Holloway oversaw a 1-1 draw here against Aston Villa in their last game which stopped a run of 5 consecutive defeats and 8 losses from their last 9 games. Blackpool have won 1 of their last 6 home games and had lost 4 of 5 at Bloomfield Road before the draw with Villa.
Matthew Gilks and Stephen Crainey remain sidelined for Blackpool, but there are no new injury worries.
Tottenham Hotspur
After the highs of the San Siro, Tottenham return to Premier League action with the chance to cement themselves into the final Champions League spot. Thanks to Arsenal being in the Carling Cup, Harry Redknapp knows his team have plenty of opportunities to rest their weary legs as this is their only game until March 6th.
Spurs moved ahead of Chelsea in the race for the final Champions League spot courtesy of a 1-2 win at Sunderland in their last game in the League. That improved their record to 6-3-4 in games away from White Hart Lane, and they have scored 18 goals and conceded 18 in those games. Tottenham's number of away wins are only bettered by North London rivals Arsenal so far this season.
The win in Milan last week means Tottenham have now won 4 in a row in all competitions following a run of 1 win in 5. More impressively, 3 of the last 4 wins have come away from the safety of White Hart Lane and with key injuries to Luka Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart and Gareth Bale. Spurs have lost just 1 of their last 7 away games in the Premier League.
While Tottenham have overcome injuries to pick up key points recently, they were once again hampered with the news that Van der Vaart is out for 10 days and misses this game. Luka Modric is available but Bale remains sidelined. Jonathan Woodgate and Vedrun Corluka are both out thanks to injuries picked up in Italy.
Head to Head
Tottenham and Blackpool have not met in a League game since 1978.
The last time they played was in the Carling Cup at White Hart Lane in 2007- Tottenham won that game by 2 goals to nil.
Prediction
Blackpool are really struggling at the moment as the gung-ho attitude that Ian Holloway takes in games is beginning to hurt his side. They have known all along that it will be tough for them to play against players that are better than them, and now the problem is trying to arrest a slide that looks like it will unfortunately end with relegation.
The other factor to consider is that Blackpool have a big game at Wolves on Saturday and we have seen that Ian Holloway is prepared to rotate his squad to give his team the best chance to survive. After being fined by the Premier League for a team put out against Aston Villa earlier this season, I just wonder how many changes, if any, Holloway will make.
Tottenham put one foot into the last 8 of the Champions League, but Harry Redknapp wants to ensure the team are playing in that competition again next season by finishing in the top 4. The loss of Bale and Van der Vaart is a detriment to the side, but there is still a lot of quality for Redknapp to use.
The 'Both Teams to Score' and 'Over 2.5 goals' market are unsurprisingly priced at extremely short prices and are not for me. Tottenham are the favourites to win the game in my opinion but I was hoping for prices more towards odds against than I have seen.
However, I did notice a little trend in the results that led to my pick. Blackpool's 6 home losses this season have all come by 1 goal and they have conceded at least 2 goals in those games.
Tottenham themselves have won all of their away games in the Premier League by 1 goal, and were again 1 goal winners at the San Siro last week.
Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised I could back Spurs at 4.0 at BetFred to win this game by the solitary goal.
With Tottenham being the most likely winner, it seems most likely that it will be a close win after looking at the statistics. The loss of Bale and Van der Vaart have been covered in recent weeks, and Spurs also seem to have enough attacking talents to get goals here.
Blackpool will fight hard as they have in all their games this season, but taking the handicap draw looks the way to go.
The Statistics :
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Pick :
Blackpool 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll take English Handicap Draw (Tottenham to win by 1 goal) @ 4.0 BetFred (2 UNITS)Follow me on Twitter @DavindaAulak- the direct link is below
