Tottenham Hotspur v Wigan Athletic Premier League preview

Tottenham hope to maintain their Champions League spot after the weekend is over as they face with a home match against Wigan Athletic.

Tottenham Hotspur

Luka Modric remains out of contention to play this weekend with a fractured fibula and Carlo Cudicini is likely to be out for the rest of the season having fracturing his wrists and damaging his pelvis in a motorcycle accident. Other than that the international break hasn’t thrown up any injuries and Tom Huddlestone reports back to the team having won his first full England international cap against Brazil last Saturday, while Robbie Keane could be dropped to the bench after not turning up to training on Friday following his heartbreak over Ireland’s defeat to France in their World Cup playoff match on Wednesday night. Peter Crouch won’t be a bad replacement should Harry Redknapp go with the England international to play alongside Jermain Defoe. Their pace and creativity should see them have lots of chances against Wigan and give them the opportunity to pick up a comfortable 3 points on Sunday. They look good to win the battle in the middle of the park and have top Premier League strikers to beat the Wigan defence. Injuries to their defence have caused them issues at the back and they will need to deal with the pace of Charles N’Zogbia and goalscoring ability of Hugo Rodallega if they want to come away with a clean sheet.

Form
DWLLW

Injuries/Suspensions
Carlo Cudicini
Luka Modric

Wigan Athletic

Hendy Thomas’ later-than-planned arrival back home may have some negative complications on Wigan’s performance at the weekend, with the tough-tackling Honduran midfielder needing to be at 100% as a vital player to breaking down the Spurs attacks. Maynor Figueroa is their only injury concern, but the main concern for Wigan this season has been consistency. A 3-1 victory over Chelsea has been followed up by a 2-1 defeat at Hull, and a 3-1 win at Burnley has been followed up with a 4-0 thrashing at Portsmouth this season. It’s hard to predict what Wigan side is going to turn up each game, but regardless of that, they don’t match up well to Spurs in this game. Aruna Dindane got a hattrick against them a few weeks ago and Jermain Defoe’s pace and attacking instincts could produce similar results in this one. They cannot afford to give the ball away in their own half again and Spurs are perfectly capable of dispatching chances and handing Wigan a hefty defeat.

Form
LDWLD

Injuries/Suspensions
Maynor Figueroa

I expect Tottenham to win this one comfortably. Even if Wigan put in one of their top draw performances, they may only lose by one goal, but Spurs should come away from this one with 3 points in any case.

Best bet: Tottenham to win 1/2