Match Preview – Brighton v Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur – the team
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Spurs have one of the most talented squads in the country packed with exciting young players yet that still hasn’t been enough for them to add a single trophy to their cabinet for over a decade. To put that in perspective, even Wigan Athletic, Swansea City and even bloody Portsmouth have won major silverware in that time. In the Premier League, they finished second to Chelsea on 86 points last season and the year before were Leicester City’s closest pursuers before rather hilariously falling away to finish in third place, below Arsenal in second. They will finish above the Gunners this season though which is more important than winning a trophy to most Spurs fans, anyway.
Tottenham – the place
Tottenham is named after a farmer called Tota who had a hamlet in the area around the time of the Doomsday Book, hence Tota’s Hamlet becoming Tottenham. Henry VIII used to visit Bruce Castle (apparently not named after Bruce Forsyth) and hunt in Tottenham Wood. In more recent times, it was in Tottenham that Mark Duggan was shot to death to spark the London Riots, allowing our Palace supporting rivals to discover how to make fire. Spurs are currently playing home games at Wembley but will move back to the area for next season. Their new home doesn’t have a name, but it might as well be called “The Corporate Bowl That Sucked The Life Out Of Football”, given that the stadiums new H Club will offer “provision for guests to store their personal vintage wines, cognacs and liquors in a purpose-built, temperature-controlled on-site reserve”. And we thought Paul Barber referring to fans as customers was bad.
Tottenham – the people
Spurs have historically had a significant following from people hated by the current Labour Party, namely Jews. This led to some horrific anti-semetic abuse through the late 1970s and early 1980s. They have a wealth of famous fans including Lord Sugar aka the Poor Man’s Donald Trump, Lemar, Jude Law and the former WWE wrestler Batista.
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Tottenham at home
Tottenham were the visitors for the inaugural first team game at the Amex in July 2011, a pre-season friendly in which they triumphed 3-2 defeat in which Ashley Barnes and Kazenga LuaLua scored for the Albion. It’s easy to forget how unfinished the stadium looked on that day we’d waited 14 long years for – empty corners and exposed steel and girders tattily covered up by a huge advertising banner for American Express where the upper tier of the East Stand now sits. It’s not easy to forget how far we’ve come to now be competing with Spurs on level terms.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Tottenham at home
Before our time, but it doesn’t get much worse than two riots in one game as happened when Spurs visited the Goldstone in April 1978. The first riot came after just 12 minutes when people spilled onto the pitch and the referee took the players off. The second was far more serious as the visiting supporters took exception to the Albion going 3-1 up and invaded the playing surface in an attempt to get the game abandoned. Classy.
Played for both?
We love highlighting how Arsenal have loaned us some utter gubbins through the years, but loan signings from that other corner of North London haven’t been much better. We’re looking at you and that overhead kick that went into orbit, Jonathan Obika.
Dangermen
Where to start? Harry Kane is one of the best strikers in the world, Christian Eriksen is probably the most underrated midfielder at one of the top six clubs and Dele Alli has made a hugely successful switch from being Tom Daley’s diving partner to professional footballer.
Betting
We’ve only managed to win and score from open play in one game against the big six so far this season and its hard to believe that Spurs will be anywhere near as poor as Arsenal were on their visit to the Amex. That makes the normal suspects of a Spurs clean sheet and both teams to score no look the value bets.
Prediction
A repeat of our visit to Wembley in December bar the half empty stadium and terrible atmosphere – 2-0 to Spurs.
