By the time we kick off on Sunday afternoon we’ll know how Liverpool and Everton (Luis Suarez is at home to Swansea, the Toffees are at Chelsea) have got on in the latest round of games and thus an idea of where this match against Norwich registers on the Must-Win-O-Meter. We need to grab any chance we can to make ground on the scousers, especially the former, given that they’re our most likely competitors in the race for the Moneybags League spots. Our wins against the Everton and the Barcodes have given our chances of success in Wenger’s Fourth Place Trophy a boost but we’re still firmly in the Possible rather than Probable camp, it’s Liverpool’s to lose. Our immediate aim must be to stay in touch with the top four until March 30 when we go to Anfield for a potentially crucial game.
We generally find it tough going against Norwich and I’m sure this weekend’ll be no exception even given the return of those rested and saved the trip to Ukraine. Most welcome back will be Adebayor of course given Soldado’s current inability to locate let alone hit a barn door but Dembele won’t be far behind him. An interesting one will be to see the availability of Kaboul. Two league games in a row for the big lad? Surely not.
Norwich’s form isn’t what it was. One win in their last eleven league games explains why they’re currently nestling one point above the relegation zone. I don’t think they’ve been in the bottom three all season but I suspect Delia has spent a lot of time stroking her chin and wondering whether handing the keys to Chris Hughton’s office to someone else would have a similar effect to what’s happened at Palace and Sunderland or to that at Fulham. At Spurs though I like to think that we like Hughton so I personally hope that her trigger finger is stayed for the moment at least.
The Canaries have managed a poultry total of 11 goals at home in 13 league games, they have though not conceded in their last three one of which was against Man City which suggests opening them up won’t be straightforward. With Adebayor back and Paulinho and Townsend regaining match fitness we have the firepower though to stretch them and improve on our already quite stunning away record for the season. Slow starts have been a feature of our game of late – we managed to avoid one against Newcastle; we need to do the same here.
Craig Pawson (who?) is the referee. I believe he’s never taken charge of a Spurs game before, I bet he’ll hardly sleep on Saturday night. COYS.
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