· Brian Judson's Preview
· Last Year's Game - Spurs 1 Liverpool 0
· This season's away game - Liverpool 2 Spurs 1
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 30 2001-2

Spurs

A. Villa    0  1   Spurs
Spurs       0  1   Newcastle
Chelsea     1  1   Spurs
Spurs       4  1   Sunderland
Spurs       1  1   Fulham
West Ham    2  0   Spurs

Liverpool

S'hampton   0  1   Liverpool
Liverpool   2  2   Arsenal
West Ham    0  3   Liverpool
Liverpool   1  1   M'brough
B'mingham   2  1   Liverpool
Liverpool   2  0   Bolton


Pos          P  W   D  L  F-A  GD  Pts
 6 Liverpool 29 12 10  7 41-28 13  46
 9 Spurs     29 12  7 10 41-40  1  43 

Liverpool have played 50 games already this season, including the Champions League, where they fell at the first "league" stage, and now the UEFA Cup, where they currently face Scottish Champions Celtic in a two-legged tie. Whilst they suffered terrible league form, when they failed to win in 11 consecutive games between November 2nd and January 18th, they have recovered some of their former poise, with only one defeat in their last six games.

Michael Owen is their leading scorer with 20 goals, 11 of which have been scored in the league, including two in his last two league games. So, despite our good home record against the "Scousers" in recent years, it looks like a tough proposition for us to get a result this week. As Brian writes, we must hope that the Reds are tired after their UEFA cup tie, but they do have a lot of players to choose from, whereas Spurs are notoriously struggling to field any notable goal power.

We hear nothing of Robbie Keane, and I fear he may be absent for a while yet. Does that mean Gary Doherty continues up front? Personally I hope not, and for once I do hope that Gus Poyet does make the line-up, as he is a charismatic figure who can provide that something special to get the ball into the net.

We must hope for some pace in the line-up, and some motivation, which was sadly lacking in our last two games. If we get nothing out of this match (and I fear that is likely), then I feel we can say goodbye to any hopes of qualifying for Europe this year.

My prediction? I'll go for a 2-1 to the Spurs. (Ever the optimist)

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