Tottenham Hotspur v Ipswich Town: Big match preview

Alun Armstrong celebrates his winning goal at Tottenham in December 2001. (Image: Newsquest)

GOOD OMEN?

In preparation for a second season down in League One, Town played a behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in the summer of 2020. Paul Lambert's men lost 3-0 that day, with Son Heung-min bagging a brace. This, however, will be the Blues' first proper trip to an impressive 62,850 capacity venue that opened back in April 2019.

Ipswich have actually won their last three competitive games against Spurs. When Town dropped out of the Premier League in 2001/02 they recorded a total of nine league wins - and two of them came against Tottenham. Alun Armstrong scored a late winner at White Hart Lane following Teddy Sheringham's dismissal, while John McGreal secured the double in the reverse fixture at Portman Road. Both games finished 2-1. Before then, newly-promoted Town beat Tottenham 3-0 on Suffolk soil on their way to an unlikely fifth-place finish. Still, that was more than two decades ago. 

Son Heung-min has 123 Premier League career goals. (Image: PA)

REASONS TO BE FEARFUL

By my reckoning Ange Postecoglu's squad cost well in excess of £500m in transfer fees to assemble. In Son, they have a genuine world superstar. For perspective, he personally has more Premier League goals and assists (188) than the entire Ipswich squad had in combined top-flight starts before this season started (162). 

Tottenham have won seven of their eight home games in all competitions this season, putting four goals past Everton, West Ham and, most recently, Aston Villa. They are the Premier League's top scorers (22), while only Liverpool and Nottingham Forest have conceded fewer.

There's a reason the bookies have Ipswich as 10/1 outsiders to get their first win of the campaign in this game.

Leif Davis jumps for joy after opening the scoring for Ipswich in last weekend's 1-1 home draw with Leicester. (Image: Steve Waller)

REASONS FOR OPTIMISM

All that said, this is probably as good a time as any for Town to take on this tricky fixture.

Tottenham fans always seem concerned their side has a 'Spursy' result in them, a feeling backed up a collapse at Brighton and defeat at Crystal Palace last month.

Having had to work really hard for a comeback victory against Villa last weekend, Tottenham went to Turkey to take on Galatasaray, at the notoriously intimidating Rams Park, on Thursday night. Injuries meant major squad rotation wasn't possible. The likes of Son, Brennan Johnson, Pedro Porro and Yves Bissouma all started. Played off the park in the first half, they lost 3-2.

On top of that, Spurs are without one (Micky van de Ven), possibly two (Cristian Romero) of their first choice centre-backs. That means that Radu Dragusin and Ben Davies could be partnered in the heart of defence for only the third time. Attacking quartet Richarlison, Timo Werner, Wilson Odobert and Mikey Moore are also sidelined.

Getting behind a high backline and putting pressure on at set-pieces will be areas of weakness that Town will look to exploit.

Might this be a game for George Hirst's running in behind? (Image: Ross Halls)

WHO PLAYS?

Jacob Greaves (hamstring), Axel Tuanzebe (hand), Jack Taylor (hamstring) and Chiedozie Ogbene (Achilles) all remain unavailable, while Kalvin Phillips now serves a one-game ban for his controversial dismissal in last weekend's 1-1 home draw with Leicester.

Napoli loanee Jens Cajuste, who performed well when skipper Sam Morsy was sidelined at Brentford, looks the most likely to step into the midfield, though Massimo Luongo is an option. Cajuste and Morsy have played together one before, in the 1-1 draw at Southampton.

The choice of front four will be interesting. Powerhouse striker Liam Delap has scored five goals since stepping up to the Premier League and already been loosely linked with Tottenham, but Kieran McKenna might think that George Hirst's desire to run in behind (plus greater strength in the air) is better suited to this game, just as he did at Brentford recently.

Omari Hutchinson looked far more effective on the right against Leicester last weekend, but is this a game for Wes Burns' straight line running on the counter? Conor Chaplin certainly deserves to retain his spot. Could Hutchinson move to the left for Sammie Szmodics? Personally, I think the latter's desire to play on the last shoulder could be a weapon.

Referee Darren England (left) sent off two players in his last Premier League game. (Image: PA)

THE OFFICIALS

It's often said that luck evens itself out when it comes to refereeing decisions. If that's the case, then Ipswich are certainly due a few calls and some helpful VAR interventions.

To recap: VAR was used for Man City but not Ipswich when it came to Leif Davis v Savinho in both boxes at the Etihad, VAR took away a penalty award for Ipswich after Jack Clarke had weaved his way past Everton players at Portman Road, VAR then jumped in to make sure Harry Clarke's foul on Keane Lewis-Potter at Brentford was given as a penalty rather than the initial award of a free-kick. Then, to add insult to injury, VAR decided not to send Tim Robinson to the monitor after he failed to spot Abdul Fatawu's barge on Conor Chaplin at a crucial stage of last weekend's draw with the Foxes.

Blues chairman Mark Ashton insisted on a face-to-face meeting with PGMOL chief Howard Webb at Portman Road this week. How much use that will prove, I'm not so sure.

The referee this weekend is Darren England. He's the man that was at the heart of the 'check complete' VAR error that wrongly ruled out a Luis Diaz goal for Liverpool against Tottenham last season. England had a spell refereeing games in Japan back in June. He sent off a player from both teams in a Premier League game between Fulham and Villa last month before dropping down to the Championship. On Wednesday night, he was in charge of a National League South game between Boreham Wood and Farnborough.