SPUR-FECT PLAN? – AVB liked to relax by resting his hand on an invisible midget (pic: Inpho)
By Aidan Elder | Chief sports writer
Tottenham v Norwich
Saturday 3pm – White Hart Lane
The amount of players clearing out their lockers at Tottenham’s Chigwell training ground in recent days has been astonishing. Whatever Andre Villas-Boas makes in profit from all his wheeling and dealing will surely need to go towards the ‘skip hire’ fund.
Spurs begin life without Luka Modric with a straightforward looking game at home to Norwich, but we said something similar about the West Brom game last week and that didn’t work out too well. Moussa Dembele is the big acquisition and the fact he’s well accustomed to Premier League football should mean minimal settling-in time. Clearly, AVB has a long-term project in mind, but as he found out at Chelsea, Premier League owners aren’t the most patient and the results in the present still matter.
After a very disheartening trouncing at Craven Cottage in the opening week, Norwich got a point on the board at home to QPR. They’ll need to get more from their home games if Chris Hughton is to guide them to another season of safety, but it’s baby steps as he finds his way in the new job, so let’s not condemn him just yet. That’s really more a middle of September thing.
Spurs should have enough to win this, but they may not be the most convincing in the process of doing it.
The ‘I don’t like giving predictions’ prediction: Draw/Tottenham at 16/5 on the Half Time/Full Time Betting
