Tottenham vs Fulham: Match Thread

Happy Spursday, Spursland! Today, Tottenham take on Fulham in a tie which will be crucial to ensuring that they remain a nose ahead of their rivals in the race for the third and fourth spots in the League. Will Spurs confidently stride over the line that Arsenal drew in the sand yesterday with their win over Swansea, or collapse in a heap in front of it and be washed out to sea by the rising tide of #narrative for the second year running? For the answer, and probably a host of further shonky metaphors leading up to it, stay tuned.

Here's Spurs' lineup and subs bench for the day:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Here's our line-up v Fulham: Lloris; Naughton, Caulker, Dawson, Vertonghen; Sigurdsson, Dembele, Parker, Assou-Ekotto; Adebayor, Bale.</p>&mdash; Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpursOfficial/status/313291409627152388">March 17, 2013</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>And here are our subs today: Friedel, Walker, Carroll, Holtby, Livermore, Defoe, Dempsey.</p>&mdash; Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpursOfficial/status/313291590326165506">March 17, 2013</a></blockquote>

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And Fulham's:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Fulham team to face Spurs: Schwarzer; Riether, Senderos, Hangeland, Riise; Dejagah, Sidwell, Karagounis, Duff; Ruiz; Berbatov <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23ffc">#ffc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23coyw">#coyw</a></p>&mdash; Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) <a href="https://twitter.com/FulhamFC/status/313292638453395456">March 17, 2013</a></blockquote>

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>And the subs for <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23ffc">#ffc</a> today: Etheridge, Hughes, Richardson, Eyong, Emanuelson, Petric, Rodallega <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23coyw">#coyw</a></p>&mdash; Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) <a href="https://twitter.com/FulhamFC/status/313292752672677888">March 17, 2013</a></blockquote>

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So yeah, um, that's pretty confusing. Five at the back with Naughton and BAE playing some wing back seems the most likely option. Not sure why Kyle Walker wouldn't be deployed in such a system, so we can only assume AVB is giving him some bench time to think about what he did last week. Overreaction or fair call- you be the judge, O wise commentariat.

Kickoff time is 15.00pm local time, 11.00am ET. For some reason, I'm struggling to find out where exactly this game is being televised in the UK, but I can tell you that you can watch the match at Fox Soccer Plus and Fox Soccer 2Go. As always, no illegal streams, no swearing at our own players, and no squabbling. COYS!