Tottenham Hotspur vs Swansea City - Match preview, team news, statistics & analysis

The Match

Tottenham have started the season as impressively as they've gone about their transfer business this summer. The new additions seem likely to keep arriving - even if Willian opts to join Chelsea over Spurs, and those already at the club seem to bedding in well. They dispatched Crystal Palace 1-0 at Selhurst Park in their opening PL game, before trampling all over poor old Dinamo Tbilisi in the Europa League, so they'll no doubt be full of confidence heading into a home match which most neutral bystanders would expect them to win. 

Swansea produced a return to winning ways in their own Europa League fixture, and while they couldn't stop the opposition scoring they did match Spurs' goalscoring exploits, so confidence in attack won't be in short supply. Laudrup called for his team to move on and they did just that in bulldozing into a three goal lead within half an hour against Petrolul, and while the 4-1 home loss to United is still fresh in the memory there's nothing like a big win to get the team smiling again.

Prior Form (most recent at top)

Europa League           Dinamo Tbilisi        0 - 5   Spurs
Premier League          Crystal Palace      0 - 1   Spurs   
Friendly                       Spurs                   1 - 1    Espanyol
Friendly                       Monaco                5 - 2    Spurs

Europa League           Swansea              5 - 1    Petrolul Ploiesti
Premier League         Swansea               1 - 4   Manchester United   
Europa League           Malmö FF              0 - 0   Swansea
Europa League           Swansea              4 - 0    Malmö FF
Friendly                       Reading                0 - 3    Swansea

Team News

Spurs are likely to be without Gareth Bale as the media circus surrounding his protracted world-record move to Real Madrid continues to lumber on. Aaron Lennon should be fit after an ankle injury, but Lewis Holtby could miss out with a recurring hip injury.

Swansea will be without Nathan Dyer as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury sustained against Manchester United. Other than that, Laudrup should have a fully fit squad to choose from.

Completely guessed lineups

Statistics & Trivia - From BBC, OPTA, Whoscored & EPLIndex

• Spurs' penalty against Palace was the first they'd had been awarded in the league since 6 May 2012. 
• Spurs have never lost a league match at home to the Swans in 15 meetings, with 13 wins and two draws.
• Tottenham have lost just two Premier League matches since 9 December 2012. Those defeats came in back-to-back matches against Liverpool and Fulham in March.
• Roberto Soldado's goal against Crystal Palace means he has now scored 11 goals in his last nine league matches.
• The Swans and Spurs both went the entire of last season without being awarded a penalty.
• The Swans' 4-1 defeat to Manchester United on the opening day was the most goals they had conceded at home in a Premier League match.
• In six away league matches in London last season, Swansea won three and lost three.
• Only Aston Villa (two) had fewer league goals scored by a substitute than Swansea (three) last season. The Swans' only goal of this season so far came from a substitute, Wilfried Bony.
• Jose Canas made 44 passes against Manchester United - the most a Spurs player made versus Crystal Palace was Aaron Lennon with 31.
• Tottenham have won nine and lost just one of their last 13 Barclays Premier League home games.
• Swansea have won just one of their last nine Barclays Premier League away games, failing to score in five.

Straight from the horse's mouth

Analysis

I'm encouraged by Laudrup's comments prior to this match. He clearly appreciates the difficulty of the task ahead and is being pragmatic when trying to reinforce the fact that the season is 38 games long. There were all kinds of negative stats about the Swans kicking around based on our poor form at the end of last season continuing with the loss to Manchester United, but given the signings we've made and the Europa League victories so far there really is reason to be positive, so to include them would be unnecessarily harsh. That being said, I'm really not sure we're going to get anything from White Hart Lane this weekend.

Spurs have remarkably only lost three times in their last 27 games, and they're a team I expect to be challenging for the title if not this season then next. Roberto Soldado is class - he's scored 24 goals in his last 31 games at club level, and 11 in his last 9 in the league. Prolific stuff, and Chico & Ash will have their hands full trying to deal with him and whoever else Spurs pick to accompany him. I'd imagine they'll go with Lennon and Nacer Chadli - a player we were linked with earlier this summer, and if they do Angel Rangel in particular will have to have a good game, as his slight lack of pace over 5 yards could be shown up by their quick feet.

In Jan Vertonghen Spurs have a quality, quality centre-half, but I'm starting to like Bony more and more. He's looking like rich man's Jason Scotland, and with 4 in his first 4 games for the club there's every reason to believe he can trouble the Tottenham defence. If the Swansea attack can link up anything like they did against Petrolul we could be in for an exciting match.

It's difficult to be able to tell how this game will go until you see the starting lineups, as midfield will (as always) be key. Given Leon played all 90 minutes and Shelvey was taken off after 68 minutes, my gut instinct is that Leon will be on the bench, and Shelvey will start alongside one of Ki, De Guzman or Canas - although given recent selections you'd imagine the latter two are the more likely. Canas has received a lot of praise but I thought he wandered a lot against United which, ok, allowed him to retain and regain possession, but also meant our midfield wasn't holding the shape we've become so used to. 

I remember when Laudrup first took over - I worried that he seemed to think we could match team's in the PL "player for player" as opposed to relying on our passing game, and although our squad has improved dramatically since then I still think we're always better off with one of Leon or Ki on the field, as they know how to carry out their role to perfection - constantly offering an outlet to relieve pressure. Whether either will be on the field against Spurs remains to be seen.

I'm struggling to see us returning home to Wales with more than a point from this one, but if we get an early goal who knows what could happen.