Fulham will be looking to bounce back from last Monday’s defeat to West Ham against Spurs tonight.
Vital Quotes:
Steve Kean: ‘When we go away, at times, we play a little bit open. We’ve been given a lot of positive press over the fact that we try and win matches. But we’re a little bit open early on in the game and we give the opposition a little bit too much space to play.
‘Certainly against West Ham there was far too much. But when we have the ball, we’re very offensive. But when you attack teams and there’s a quick changeover of possession, you have to get close to them otherwise they’re going to open you up.’
‘Their away form is very good, they’ve scored 14 goals away from home. Us having good home form, them having good away from and scoring lots of goals means it should be a great game.
‘They’re a very good, crisp passing team. We’ve worked on getting close and making sure they’re quality players in midfield don’t get their heads up. They’ve got their injury problems with Tanio and Davids so they might adjust the way they play through the middle of the pitch.
Ledley King: ‘It was one of our most disappointing games last season and we want to forget about that. This season I think we are a lot stronger and hopefully that will show.’
Fulham Team News:
Fulham will be looking to maintain an impressive home record having taken 23 of their 26 league points at home this season.
The Cottagers are still without long-term absentees Claus Jensen, Mark Pembridge and Phillippe Christanval leaving them short in midfield. Heider Helguson sustained a knock last week against West Ham and suffered concussion. He will need to pass a fitness test tonight before being available for selection.
Michael Brown will not feature as part of the deal that took him from Spurs was confirmed this morning.
Player to watch: Steed Malbranque
Steed Malbranque has been fantastic this season and Coleman will be looking to him to influence a tricky home tie.
Tottenham Team News:
Edgar Davids and Teemu Tainio look set to miss out through injury for tonights clash at Craven Cottage.
Spurs manager Martin Jol is known to dislike playing Robbie Keane and Jermaine Defoe together despite the absent Mido being on African Nations duty and is expected to name Keane in the line-up ahead of Defoe.
Player to watch: Ledley King
Much is expected of Ledley King and he will be looking to put in a solid performance tonight to cement his place in Sven Goran Erikssons’ World Cup plans.
Match Facts & Stats
In their last Premiership meeting at White Hart Lane Spurs took all three points with an early goal form jermaine Defoe. Fulham rarely threatened Tottenham’s goal other than a strike by Claus Jensen that hit the crossbar.
Fulham will be looking to maintain an impressive home record having taken 23 of their 26 league points at home this season. The have also won six of their last seven league matches at home, scoring 18 goals in the process.
Spurs will be looking for three points as they push to secure the final Champions League spot.
They have taken 15 points on the road this season, scoring 14 goals.
The fixture ended 2-0 to the Cottagers last season and they will be searching for another three points tonight as they look to haul themselves away from the relegation scrap and in to mid-table.
