Next Sunday, 5th of October 2014, Tottenham will entertain a surprising Southampton team at White Hart Lane for round seven of the English Premier League, on a match of mixed feelings for the Spurs’ current manager, Mauricio Pochettino, who spent his last season at Southampton and has a great share of “guilt” on the team’s current levels of ambition and quality patterns.

After last round’s draw for the London derby against Arsenal, Tottenham will certainly work on what they achieved in that match to try and get something positive from their complicated clash with Southampton from next Sunday. Tottenham are probably not enjoying the best of times and their inability to snatch some more wins is certainly worrying their supporters.

Last Thursday, the Spurs weren’t, once again, able to grant the three points when they played host to Besiktas at White Hart Lane for the UEFA Europa League, since they conceded a 1-1 draw. One has to say that Tottenham were minutes away from clinching that much wanted win but a late goal by former Chelsea’s forward, Demba Ba, destroyed the London’s team aspirations.

Despite the team’s good start at the English Premier League, Pochettino has been facing some problems in getting his team on the right track and just one win in seven matches is certainly not contributing for increasing the team’s shaky morale.

For the match against the Saints, the Argentinean manager is not yet certain if he will able to count on the contribution of Rose and Capoue, who are still recovering from recent injuries.

As for Southampton, after their defeat on the opening match of the season at hands of Liverpool and after an unlikely home draw against West Brom on the following week, the Saints embarked on a fantastic six match streak 100% victorious and are now right behind Chelsea on the second place of the league table.

The departure of Pochettino and the exodus of some of their most important players during the Summer window was not a good sign for the Saints’upcoming season and aspirations, but their new manager Ronald Koeman has been able to counter that idea, especially by injecting an impressive winning mentality and a renewed morale on the team.

When both sides met at White Hart Lane last season, the match ended in a spectacular 3-2 win for the home side. It is hard to predict who will be victorious on the next Sunday’s match and if the Spurs are slightly favourites because they are playing at home, one cannot rule out a team such as Southampton, which is proving to be one of the best sides of the English Premier League this season.

Tottenham

Stats: W-1 L-1 D-3

Recent Form - DDWLD

Southampton

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

Recent Form - WWWWW

Possible Line-ups

Tottenham (4-4-1-1) - Lloris - Vertonghen - Kaboul - Dier - Naughton - Capoue - Mason - Chadli - Eriksen - Lamella - Adebayor

Southampton (4-3-3) – Forster - Clyne - Fonte - Alderweireld - Bertrand - Wanyama - S Davis - Schneiderlin - Tadic - Mane - Pelle.

Prediction

Tottenham 1 Southampton 1