For Tottenham Hotspur, the 2017-18 goal is to repeat as Premier League title challengers for a third season in a row and better position themselves to win titles once they move into their new stadium next season. For Swansea City, the focus is singular, for this season and this season only — remaining a PL club.
Two sides with very different recent histories — and immediate futures — meet at Wembley Stadium on Saturday (Watch live, 12:30 p.m. ET, on NBC and NBCSports.com).
[ STREAM: Tottenham vs. Swansea ]
Tottenham have already dropped more points at home — Wembley — this season (5) than during the whole of last season — White Hart Lane (4). On Wednesday, though, Mauricio Pochettino’s side might have just moved beyond their past struggles at England’s national ground with a 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League, spearheaded by Harry Kane’s brace. Since the calendar turned to September, Kane has scored four goals in two games for Spurs (plus two in two for England) after failing to tally in three August games.
Swansea have four points from four games thus far, an identical start to last season, which only saw them climb out of the relegation zone in the season’s final four weeks. The months of September and October are where they hope their fortunes will be drastically different: the Swans collected just one point from the following seven games in 2016-17. Following the departures of last season’s two top scorers (Fernando Llorente, to Spurs; Gylfi Sigurdsson, to Everton) Paul Clement certainly has his work cut out for him, particularly in facing the returning stingiest defense in the PL on Saturday.
INJURIES: Tottenham — OUT: Danny Rose (knee), Victor Wanyama (knee), Erik Lamela (hip) | Swansea — OUT: Ki Sung-Yueng (knee), Kyle Bartley (knee), Nathan Dyer (achilles)
What they’re saying
Mauricio Pochettino on Kane’s future: “His mentality is to stay here, not only in the PL, but at Tottenham. He shows every single day how he loves Tottenham. In my opinion, he doesn’t need titles to show he’s one of the best strikers. All players play try to score, win and win titles. That is everyone’s aim, of course, but so far Harry Kane is showing he is one of the best strikers in the world.”
Paul Clement on Renato Sanches’ difficult debut: “We think we have a great young talent here. But he has not played a massive amount of games. That is going to affect not only the tactical sharpness in his brain but the physical side as well. Give him a little bit of time for him to adapt and he will be on the right track.”
Prediction
With the Wembley demons exorcised in the win over Dortmund, consecutive home fixtures against Swansea (PL) and Barnsley (League Cup) should help Spurs build a bit of momentum before away trips to West Ham United (Sept. 23) and APOEL Nicosia (Sept. 26).