Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth will have the opportunity to make things for Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley Stadium all the more sticky, when they take on Mauricio Pochettino’s men on Saturday afternoon.

The clubs have enjoyed contrasting starts to the season, with Spurs currently third in the table despite having problems winning games at Wembley - their temporary home this season - so far.

As far as the Cherries go though, they just have four points on the board this season and are second bottom in the league, above only Crystal Palace.

Bournemouth haven’t beaten Tottenham since they gained promotion to the first division two seasons ago, but the game at Wembley will allow them to have another go at the Lilywhites.

Tottenham look to keep momentum

While Pochettino’s men have endured a tough start to life at Wembley, they haven’t lost a single game in all competitions since their 2-1 defeat at the hands of reigning Champions Chelsea in late August.

The third-placed outfit, who were dubbed to be a ‘Harry Kane team’ by Pep Guardiola, are third in the title race, five points off the two Manchester sides.

Their last game saw them pick up an impressive and a rather effortless 4-0 win over David Wagner’s Huddersfield Town away from home. A Harry Kane brace and goals from Ben Davies and Moussa Sissoko were enough to hand the North London side a deserved win.

Spurs are set to play out what seems a month that could be the toughest of the season, with two gargantuan clashes against Real Madrid beckoning and league games against Manchester United and Liverpool fast approaching them.

And they boast of the second-best defence in the league, behind the Manchester sides. Not just that, but they have the third best goalscoring record, again behind only United and City.

A win could smoothen the start of what could be a rocky month ahead.

Can the Cherries seek redemption?

Bournemouth have accumulated just four points but have lost just one of their previous three games, with the win over Brighton & Hove Albion their only first win of the campaign.

There have been signs of the side that finished in the top half of the league last season, but that hasn’t led to anything concrete and goals have been hard to come by.

They have scored just four goals this season. Jermain Defoe has scored just once, with last season’s highest scorer Joshua King also finding the back of the net once.

They’ve never beaten Spurs since gaining promotion, but did come close last season when they held the title challengers to a 0-0 draw at Vitality Stadium. Despite that though, a 4-0 hammering at White Hart Lane followed in the reverse fixture.

Injury problems for both sides

Both sides have a fair share of injury problems in the vault, with both Ryan Fraser and King coming back from the international break with hamstring injuries. Brad Smith is already injured and will sit out due to a hip problem.

Spurs, on the other hand, continue to have the same absentees in this game as well, with the quadruple of Erik Lamela, Danny Rose and Victor Wanyama out, along with the influential Mousa Dembélé.

Rose and Wanyama have returned to first-team training, but won’t feature in the game. Serge Aurier will be back after having served his suspension against the Terriers.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Kaustubh Pandey
A 19-year-old football writer. Currently write for CalcioMercato, OutsideOftheBoot, ForzaItalianFootball, BackPageFootball, EPLIndex, Sportscafe and many other websites.