White Hart Lane

Tottenham Hotspur v Blues
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 29th August 2009
Kick-off: 3pm

Blues face a tough assignment this weekend as Alex McLeish's men travel to the Capital to take on the Premier League's early pace-setters Tottenham Hotspur.

Here is everything you need to know ahead of this Saturday's game.....

OPPOSITIONPROFILE
Tottenham Hotspur
Nickname: Spurs
Stadium: White Hart Lane
Manager: Harry Redknapp
Last Season: 8th in the PL
This Season: Top of the PL (nine points)
Top scorer: Jermain Defoe, four goals

Spurs summer signing Peter Crouch opens his goal account in the midweek win at Doncaster.

TRANSFERSIN
Sebastien Bassong (undisclosed, Newcastle United)
Peter Crouch (undisclosed, Portsmouth)
Kyle Naughton (undisclosed, Sheffield United)
Kyle Walker (undisclosed, Sheffield United) 

TRANSFERSOUT
Darren Bent (£10m, Sunderland)
Yuri Berchiche (undisclosed, Real Valladolid)
Jonathan Obika (loan, Yeovil Town)
Jake Livermore (loan, Derby County)
Adel Taarabt (loan, QPR)
Adam Smith (loan, Wycombe)
Andros Townsend (loan, Leyton Orient)
Kyle Walker (loan, Sheffield United)
Ben Alnwick (loan, Norwich City)
Troy Archibald-Henville (loan, Exeter City)
Chris Gunter (£1.75m, Nottingham Forest)
Jacques Maghoma (free, Burton Albion)
Ryan Mason (loan, Yeovil Town)
Didier Zokora (undisclosed, Sevilla) 

HEADTOHEAD
League: Played 78, Won 26, Drawn 14, Lost 38
FA Cup: Played 10, Won 1, Drawn 5, Lost 4
League Cup: Played 2, Won 1, Drawn 0, Lost 1

PREVIOUSMEETINGS

Mikael Forssell scores one of his three goals against Spurs in March 2008.

Blues 4 Tottenham 1
Barclays Premier League
Saturday 1st March 2008
Mikael Forssell became the first Blues player to score a Premier League hat-trick in the last meeting of the sides. The popular Finn opened the scoring with a header early on and then grabbed two more in the final half-hour to claim the matchball, with Seb Larsson scoring his team's second goal with a fine free-kick effort just after the interval. Jermaine Jenas notched a late consolation for the visitors.

Seb Larsson celebrates his stunning strike at White Hart Lane.

Tottenham 2 Blues 3
Barclays Premier League
Sunday 2nd December 2007
No one will ever forget Alex McLeish's first game in charge of Blues. A fantastic goal-of-the-season by Seb Larsson sent the Scot home happy with his first three points in the bag after a five-goal thriller. With the game locked at 2-2 deep into injury-time, the Swede let fly from fully 35 yards with an absolute belter that beat Paul Robinson all ends up. Gary McSheffrey had put Blues into a half-time lead but a quickfire brace from Robbie Keane turned the game on its head. Cameron Jerome levelled for the visitors before Keane turned from hero to villain by being sent off and Larsson stole the show late on. 

FORMGUIDE

SPURS (WWWW)
Tottenham 2 Liverpool 1
Hull 1 Tottenham 5
West Ham 1 Tottenham 2
Doncaster 1 Tottenham 5 (CC)

BLUES (LWDW)
Man Utd 1 Blues 0
Blues 1 Portsmouth 0
Blues 0 Stoke 0
Southampton 1 Blues 2 (CC)

TEAMNEWS

SPURS
Harry Redknapp looks set to keep the same side that beat West Ham in their last Premier League fixture.
Carlo Cudicini keeps his place in goal with Heurelho Gomes unavailable with a thigh strain. Jonathan Woodgate (groin) and Michael Dawson (Achilles) are also still sidelined.

Kevin Phillips is back in the Blues squad this weekend.

BLUES
Blues have Kevin Phillips, Keith Fahey and Damien Johnson available again while Alex McLeish will make a late check on the fitness of Gregory Vignal. Cameron Jerome (ankle), Martin Taylor (ankle), Scott Dann (groin), Marcus Bent (hamstring), Liam Ridgewell (leg) and David Murphy (knee) are the only definite absentees.

MANAGER'SCOMMENTS

ALEXMCLEISH
"We're coming up against a high-flying Spurs side at the weekend. We'd like to think that we can be organised against Spurs and try and resist their fantastic attack.
"The last two or three teams haven't been able to do it. They've been on fire, scoring goals for fun. They're at the top of their form right now and their confidence is sky high.
"It's now our turn to face the challenge. Harry has built a tremendous squad there and spent the money very well. They have multi-million pound players that can't even get a game so we're in no doubt about the mammoth task that we face, but that's the great challenges of football.
"They have phenomenal technical ability and speed in their team and they have certainly been the talk of the season so far. There is no reason why they can't compete with the very best teams in the Premier League and be serious title contenders this season, if they can keep everybody fit."

BETTINGTIPS
Spurs 4/11, Blues 8/1, Draw 15/4
Garry O'Connor and James McFadden are joint favourites of the fit Blues players to open the scoring for Blues at 11/1. Christian Benitez could be handed his first Premier League start after a bright midweek display. You can get 12/1 on the Ecuadorian striker opening the scoring at White Hart Lane.

Bcfc.com hot tip: If you fancy a few goals at White Hart Lane then you can get an inticing 20/1 on a 2-2 draw.

For the full range of Bets available with Bet365, please click here. Remember every bet you make helps the club

MATCHCOMMENTARY
You can listen to full 90 minutes commentary of the game on Blues Player.

To access Blues player, please click here.

The official website, bcfc.com, will have a match report available minutes after the final whistle along with McLeish's post-match comments.

TICKETLATEST
There are still plenty of tickets left for this Saturday's game but please note that the match is all-ticket so you will not be able to pay on the day at White Hart Lane. Tickets go off sale from the Blues ticket office at 3pm on Friday.