Opposition view – Spurs

We catch up with Mick Faldo from spursweb.com ahead of the Swans’ trip to play Spurs at Wembley this weekend…

What have you made of your start to the season?
Slower than I’d hoped for in my most extreme moments of optimism but not so slow that there’s anything to get upset about. Two good away wins and denied two perfectly good home results by late goals. The fact that both those goals came from uncharacteristically sloppy defending is perhaps the only point of concern.

What are your expectations this term?
To enjoy myself! The last two seasons have been so much fun, I’d hate to think that we’ve reached the end of this cycle yet. Progress will be hard to achieve given various circumstances but Wednesday night is already an improvement on last year’s Moneybags league opener so we’re already ahead of the curve.

There’s been a lot of talk in the press about the “Wembley curse”. Do you think there’s much in it or is it just an exaggeration?
Curse shmurse. We’ve lost to Chelsea twice and Monaco, two of Europe’s best teams, won twice and drawn two thanks to conceding late goals, one of which was with only ten men. Our loss to Bayer Leverkusen last year was the only truly bad performance. No-one likes Wembley but we just have to put up with it. Wednesday’s win will have improved everyone’s feeling towards the place.

Were you happy with the business you did this summer?
Apart from the lack of a backup to Eriksen, yes. Llorente is an upgrade on Janssen and we’ve beefed up what was already arguably the best defence in the league.

One of your new arrivals is Fernando Llorente. Do you think he will feature much?
In the cups maybe but only here and there in the league. No-one doubts his ability in front of goal, everyone doubts his capacity to provide the non stop activity centre that Kane does. His job will be to give Harry a rest occasionally or be a plan B if we’re having trouble breaking teams down.

What do you make of Swansea and which players if any do you fear?
Losing Llorente and Sigurdsson in the same window without signings to replace their goals looks like suicide to me to be honest. I think things won’t go well, I hope I’m wrong. I’m looking forward to seeing Sanches, fear is a bit strong though.

Predict the score and where both teams will finish…
2-0 home win. We’ll be somewhere between 4th and 5th. You’ll be somewhere between 17th and 20th.