Fulham vs Tottenham Hotspur Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2011-11-06 - Fulham vs Tottenham Hotspur

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Fulham v Tottenham Hotspur
Football : English Premier League
Sunday 6 November 2011 - Kickoff 4pm
This game is live on TV

Fulham

Martin Jol will be looking forward to this game against his former team who sacked him acrimoniously while they were still playing a UEFA Cup game. Jol never really lost his reputation as he had turned Tottenham Hotspur into a genuine threat to reach the top 4, although a lot of his good work was undone by Juande Ramos.

Fulham earned a vital win at Wigan last week and now moved into 14th spot in the Premier League having gained 10 points from their opening set of fixtures this season. They have taken a little bit of time in understanding what Martin Jol expects from the players and that has led to inconsistent results. Fulham are 1-3-1 at Craven Cottage this season, scoring 10 goals but conceding 6.

The team had lost 3 games in a row in all competitions before the win at Wigan last Saturday, and they followed that up with a comfortable home win on Thursday in the Europa League. That result continued Fulham's good home form in Europe, but they were beaten 1-3 by Everton here in their most recent League game. Fulham's sole home win in the Premier League came in a 6-0 win against West London rivals QPR.

Philippe Senderos should be available for this game, while Aaron Hughes remains a doubt. Simon Davies will not be back from injury until the end of the month at the earliest.

Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur have been in fine form of late and look a genuine challenger for a top 4 berth this season after recovering from an awful start to the new campaign. Harry Redknapp will not be on the sidelines for this match as he recovers from minor heart surgery so Kevin Bond and Joe Jordan will be taking charge.

Losing the first 2 League games of the season was not exactly what the Spurs fans had in mind, but they have recovered well to earn 19 points from the last 24 available as they have moved up to 5th in the Premier League. Tottenham also have a game in hand over most teams in the League and a win in that would see them sitting just 6 points behind Manchester City in the table. They are 3-1-1 away from White Hart Lane this season, scoring 8 goals and conceding 7.

Spurs had been unbeaten in 11 games in all competitions before the loss to Rubin Kazan in the Europa League on Thursday, although they have been playing a much changed starting XI in their European games. They have won 6 of their last 7 games in the Premier League, the sole exception being a 2-2 draw at Newcastle United. Spurs have won 3 of their last 4 away games in the League, scoring 2 goals in each of those games.

William Gallas and Steven Pienaar both returned to first team action on Thursday, but I would be surprised if either is in the line up on Sunday. Vedrun Corluka, Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone and Niko Kranjcar are all out and I expect Spurs will play the same XI that beat QPR 3-1 at home last weekend.

Head to Head

Fulham beat Tottenham 4-0 here in the FA Cup last season, but they have now lost 3 Premier League games in a row against Spurs, including a 1-2 loss here in October last year.

That defeat was actually the first time in 9 visits to Craven Cottage in the League that the away side had gone away with 3 points.

3 of the previous 4 games between the teams here had ended in draws before that Spurs win last season.

Prediction

I am finding it hard to pick a winner in this game as Fulham have been a really strong team at Craven Cottage over the last 3/4 seasons and I don't really like picking against them here, even more so considering their strong record against Tottenham.

Tottenham have been in fantastic form of late, scoring goals for fun, and they look like the real deal to challenge for a top 4 berth at the minimum, especially with the squad they have. Injuries are just beginning to clear up for Spurs too which should improve their chances of success in other competitions this season.

While picking a winner will be difficult, I think it could pay to follow Tottenham in this game in the goals scored market as the team are priced up at odds against to score at least 2 goals in this game.

That is a target they have achieved in their last 7 Premier League games and they have options all over the pitch that can create goals and score them, with Rafael Van der Vaart being in particularly inspired form of late.

My only concern is that they have only managed to reach that target in 3 of their last 7 visits to Craven Cottage, but Fulham have been a little more open defensively this season and I think Spurs can take advantage of that in the live afternoon game.

The Statistics :

FULHAM LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-10-23	L	1-3	H v Everton
	2011-10-02	W	6-0	H v QPR
	2011-09-18	D	2-2	H v Man_City
	2011-09-11	D	1-1	H v Blackburn
	2011-08-13	D	0-0	H v Aston_Villa
	2011-05-22	D	2-2	H v Arsenal

TOTTENHAM LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-10-23	W	1-2	A v Blackburn
	2011-10-16	D	2-2	A v Newcastle
	2011-09-24	W	1-2	A v Wigan
	2011-09-10	W	0-2	A v Wolves
	2011-08-22	L	3-0	A v Man_Utd
	2011-05-15	W	0-2	A v Liverpool

HEAD TO HEAD FULHAM v TOTTENHAM
DATE	HOME	SCORE	AWAY
2010-10-16	Fulham	1-2	Tottenham
2009-12-26	Fulham	0-0	Tottenham
2008-11-15	Fulham	2-1	Tottenham
2007-09-01	Fulham	3-3	Tottenham
2007-01-20	Fulham	1-1	Tottenham
2006-01-31	Fulham	1-0	Tottenham