TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
OVERALL: 3-2-1, +3 GD
POSITION: 7th
LAST 5: W-W-W-D-D
ASTON VILLA
OVERALL: 1-2-3, -4 GD
POSITION: 15th
LAST 5: D-L-W-D-L
Related: Spurs vs. Villa Preview | Follow us on Twitter 
WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
- Villa likes to press ahead with the fullbacks. Spurs have a whole lot of speed on the flanks. Ron Vlaar and Karim El Ahmadi are not especially fleet of foot. Ciaran Clark could be rather important.
- Darren Bent, probably. I don't know, I hate this whole story, but something he does will probably be blown out of proportion. It's dumb, and it sucks, but it's a story.
- Gareth Bale is kind of good. So he might be a thing that matters.
- The central midfield battle is getting interesting. Lambert really seems to want to go with a double pivot, and against Spurs that makes a whole lot of sense. Fabian Delph was quite good against West Brom. But the team's potency in attack clearly takes a hit with one striker. The narrow 4-2-3-1 might be as close to a defensive option as we see from Lambert.