Birmingham City vs Tottenham Hotspur: Has the Blues bubble burst?
Eighth placed Birmingham take on fourth placed Tottenham in what promises to be a very tight match.
The first defeat since October for Birmingham was a fairly comprehensive beating at Stamford Bridge; and there must be a suspicion that after such a long unbeaten run there could be a bad patch at some point. Sunderland were going well in the first half of the season - climbing to seventh - and getting wins against Liverpool and Arsenal as well as drawing at Old Trafford, but suddenly form went and the Black Cats haven't won a league game since beating Arsenal in November. Alex McLeish may well set out to contain this game to make sure that his players get the Chelsea game out of their system.
Tottenham are now three points ahead of Liverpool, although Manchester City are technically better placed also three points adrift but with two games in hand. You would ordinarily expect Liverpool to win at home to Bolton so Spurs need to get a result here to stay in the top four. Harry Redknapp is again in the transfer market and attempting to pay off Pompey's debts by buying even more ex-Portsmouth players but Spurs are so close to a top four finish that a little extra spending now could be very cost effective come May. This is the kind of game that Spurs have been failing to win in recent weeks to allow Liverpool to get so close - a win here would be a definite sign that Spurs can finish fourth.
Birmingham City vs Tottenham Hotspur; Kick Off 3:00pm 30 Jan 2010
Prediction Panel
Our panel contains both Squarefootball writers and readers, the writers are marked: (sqf).
Dave Blackburn : TBC
Chris Cox : TBC
Graham Enwright : 2 - 1
Sue Gardener : 1 - 3
Chris Goodwin : 1 - 1
Paul Grech (sqf) : TBC
Colin Illingworth (sqf) : 2 - 1
Hugh Larkin (sqf) : TBC
Peter Lee : 1 - 1
Don McMahon : 2 - 1
Antony Melvin (sqf) : 1 - 2
Paul O'Meara (sqf) : TBC
Dave Nash : 0 - 1
Stephen Orford (sqf) : TBC
Tony Ratton : 1 - 2
Peter Rendle : 1 - 1
Dan Taylor : TBC
Andy Wakeman : 2 - 1
Isaac Williams : TBC
Mark Williams : TBC
Panel Verdict
The panel is completely split with a 1-1 draw the consensus.
Home: 4; Draw: 3; Away: 4; TBC: 9.
* Do we have it right, or do you know better? Please don't bother with derisory comments on the predictions after the match - unless you also pulled us up before it!
