Saturday, May 2, 2009

Fixture Focus - Spurs (2 May 2009)



Tottenham Hotspur vs West Bromwich Albion






The last weekend was a weekend that we Spurs fans would want to forget....

Anyway, the coming fixture sees us hosting West Bromwich Albion, who still has a mathematical chance of staying alive in the Premier League. With their fellow strugglers Middlesbrough and Newcastle United against Champions-chasing Manchester United and Liverpool respectively, WBA will seize this opportunity and throw everything against us in order to climb further into safety.

Spurs, too, have something to fight for in this game - the seventh (heaven) spot, which means qualification into the new Europa League. Though Bent is injured, Pavlyuchenko and Defoe will be back.

So, there is a reason each for both teams to fight for in this game. Expect entertaining football this time round.

COYS!!!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spurs is already in Europe. They are the losing finalist in the Carling Cup.

Bedokian said...

Er, nope, Carling Cup finalists do not get qualification to the UEFA Cup (or Europa).

In fact, as of this year, even the finalist for the FA Cup do not get qualification.

Bedokian said...

Addendum - finalist in my above post means runners-up.

JayWalk said...

THAT I did not know.

All along I thot Spurs booked a ticket to Europe already.

So how is the coming Europa league different from the UEFA Cup?

Bedokian said...

Nope, which is why the EPL news is abuzzed with who will get the 7th league spot to go to Europe.

Basically, the Europa League would be the new name for the UEFA Cup. The new format is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_League#New_format_in_2009.E2.80.9310

So, in the current season, the top 4 would be in the Champions League, while the 5th, the FA Cup & Carling Cup winners will get the 3 UEFA Cup slots.

Since Man Utd won the Carling Cup, the next UEFA Cup slot will go to 6th. Furthermore, it will be a Chelsea - Everton FA Cup final, so regardless who wins, the next spot will go to the 7th place.