ASTON VILLA v TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
O'NEILL: SPURS ARE OUR MAIN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RIVALS
ComeOnSpurs.com, 28 Nov 2009
Martin O'Neill has stated that tomorrow's opponents, Tottenham Hotspur, will be Aston Villa's main rivals in the battle to win a Champions League place this season.
Last season, Villa were in the hunt up until March but then slumped to sixth after injuries badly affected a squad that lacked depth.
Villa have added many new players to their ranks in a bid to overcome this, this time around. These include Richard Dunne, James Collins, Stewart Downing, Stephen Warnock, Fabian Delph and Habib Beye, who all arrived in the summer.
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Spurs have been building too and this has seen them move into the coveted top four after last weekend's 9-1 spanking of Wigan.
However Villa, who are fifth, are confident of picking up maximum points in order to draw level with Tottenham.
"Tottenham are very strong," the Villa boss said in The Mirror.
"They have a chance to challenge that top four because they have the wherewithal to do it.
"But we will throw absolutely everything at it.
"It will be a tough ask this season again but it's our aim.
"That's what we want to do as we'd love to be playing Champions League football eventually.
"I am hoping we can hang in and get a few results so supporters stay with us, thinking something may happen.
"We love a challenge and we get excited by it all.
"But the fact is the top four have been the top four because they have been the four best sides through the course of the season.
"Teams can have little runs at it but Everton are the only team to have broken it in the last six years.
"I just think from our point of view, consistency over a lengthy period of the season is vital.
"We had an experience of it last season, we were going along nicely until February time.
"We had a number of points on the board and perhaps if we had a bigger squad we may have been able to cope a bit better."
--- The application for London to be a host city should England's 2018 World Cup bid be successful was submitted yesterday by London United and Tottenham Hotspur were there.
Executive Director Donna-Maria Cullen put forward Spurs' potential new venue as part of the application. Wembley, London's Olympic Stadium and Arsenal's Emirates Stadium were the other grounds included in the Bid Book.
Donna-Maria Cullen told the Spurs Official Website: "We are delighted to be part of the London application to be a host city and to show our support for the Bid.
"We have designed our new stadium to deliver a fantastic atmosphere for fans and being a venue for World Cup matches would provide a tremendous boost for our Club, the Tottenham area and London."
Anthony Nichols, November 28, 2009 at 1:53 pm Spurs made history last week with their thrashing of Wigan. However, you have to look at their whole record and against top teams it has not been too impressive. With home field advantage I can see Villa possibly winning by two goals.
