Tottenham Hotspur V Blackburn Rovers Betting: Saturday, 13th March (Sky Sports)

Tottenham Hotspur V Blackburn Rovers

Saturday, 13^th March – 12:45 GMT

TV Coverage: Sky Sports 1

Tottenham Hotspur

League Position: 4th

Recent Form: DDLWW

Tottenham Hotspur will continue their assault on the Champions League spots at the weekend when they prepare to entertain a poor travelling Blackburn Rovers at White Hart Lane. Because of how far Tottenham have come since a difficult 2008/2009 Premiership campaign, and down to the fact that Rovers are one of the poorest travellers in the league, this is a fixture Tottenham are being heavily backed to win in, and rightly so. Anything but would be a massive shock and a catastrophe as far as Spurs go as these type of easy fixtures simply can’t be passed up as each sides remaining fixtures slowly begin to ware away.

Harry Redknapp is still ruing plenty of injuries and is now down to the bare bone with his squad. His starting eleven still looks immensely strong on paper, so for now the Englishman is fine, but Blackburn have been known to ‘roughen’ up sides this season, and so, perhaps Redknapp will be right to have some concerns over the fitness of his players heading into what should be a physical clash with Blackburn. Redknapp, however, should solely concentrate on Tottenham’s game plan though, as a professional performance from Spurs would see them clinch all three points here you would feel. 

While Blackburn’s hustling style of play has earned them many critics in recent weeks, we still believe Tottenham’s natural flair and technical ability will see them through this physical examination. They were frustrated at Craven Cottage over the weekend when drawing 0-0 in the FA Cup, but back at home is where Tottenham play their most entertaining football, at a venue they clearly prefer playing at. They get the ball down and play crisply to feet, with some snappy one-two passes and some lovely interchanging and defensive overlaps. Spurs really are a hard team to keep up with when they set off at a high tempo. Like we said above, if Tottenham play in their usual free-flowing manner, they will win this encounter, no problem.

We honestly believe a home win is near enough a given here, so we suppose the only question left to answer is who will score the goals, or who will actually start up front for that matter. Jermain Defoe is a certainty to start after missing the opening 45 minutes at Craven Cottage as a precaution, while the battle to gain a starting berth looks to be between Pavlyuchenko and Peter Crouch. We have one, a Russian bang in form and scoring plenty of goals, while the other, a tall Englishman with a weather mast on his head, whom has been claiming all the limelight for England but not for Spurs, so it’s a difficult one to weigh up. We honestly feel Crouch works better with Defoe but the pair haven’t exactly been prolific together this season, so perhaps Roman will get another chance to roam from the off as the uncertainty surrounding which striking duet works best dwells on.

Blackburn Rovers

League Position: 12th

Recent Form: DLWWL 

‘Big Sam’ has been known to use some rough, tough and even down right dirty tactics to disrupt the pattern of his opponents play, but his efforts to halt a pacey Tottenham Hotspur maybe in vein as Rovers aim to better their drastically bad away record of one away win all season. We don’t rate their chances of doing so in the slightest, but no-one gave Stoke City & Wolves much hope when they took on the wrath of Spurs at White Hart Lane and the pair both came home with victories, so perhaps Blackburn are no forlorn hope after all.

Nevertheless, the task at hand for Blackburn looks colossal when you consider just how bad their form on the road has been this season. Just one win in fourteen outings speaks for itself, while that only rare away delight came at Bolton, a team struggling near the foot of the table, so Rovers can hardly seek inspiration from that result either. More importantly, however, the statistics paint an even dire story, with Blackburn having lost five of their last seven away fixtures in the Premiership. Moreover, they haven’t scored from open play in 340 minutes of away play, yet another disturbing fact about Rovers’ drab away fortunes. 

Blackburn have the perfect away recipe for disaster on the statistic front in that they struggle to score but concede bucket loads. 9-33 is their away goal difference after thirteen games, with Rovers averaging under one goal every game whilst managing to concede at least two along the way. That does interest us, as well does hearing that only four times have Blackburn not managed to concede at least two goals in an away fixture. It just gets worse and worse.

Sam Allardyce is a firm believer in statistics and he uses them all the time to highlight other teams flaws. Well, there are about a dozen statistics which say Blackburn have no chance whatsoever in this fixture, yet he would argue with you until the sun goes down that his team aren’t no-hoper’s on Saturday. We, however, couldn’t disagree any more if we tried and would genuinely be shocked were Blackburn to sneak a result at White Hart Lane. Not only do the statistics patently dent their away credentials but Blackburn’s away performance haven’t even been good enough to suggest they will challenge Spurs for a share of the spoils. They don’t create enough chances, their midfield is easily overrun while their defence is far too exposed and leaky. Need we say any more?

Match Verdict: Tottenham Hotspur to WIN – 1.45 bWin

This should be a routine win for Spurs as they seek out their third league win on the spin, their second in succession at White Hart Lane, at the expense of a Blackburn side with an embarrassingly bad away record of one win in fourteen. Rovers don’t play pretty football, nor do they carve out too many clear openings, so it’s hard to imagine Blackburn keeping up with a Tottenham team who will create plenty of goalscoring opportunities but yet have the players to convert the ones they do get. If you’re going to oppose Tottenham then you’re playing with fire in our opinion: You’ll need Rovers to take the rare chance they do get and hope Spurs miss the gluten of opportunities that arise for them, which is asking for a lot if you ask me. Nothing less than a comfortable home win for us as Tottenham maintain their winning trail in the Premiership.

Match Odds:

Tottenham Hotspur – 1.45 bWin

Draw – 4.30 Boylesports

Blackburn Rovers – 8.00 Coral

SoccerBetting Value Pick: Tottenham -1.50 (Asian Handicap) – 2.32 Bet365