Premier League preview: Tottenham v Sunderland

Tottenham Hotspur take on Sunderland at White Hart Lane as Harry Redknapp tries to get his side back to winning ways.

Tottenham lost 2-1 at Stoke City last weekend, ending their 11-match unbeaten run and six-game winning streak in the Premier League.

Despite beating Shamrock Rovers 4-0 in the Europa League in Dublin on Thursday, Spurs were eliminated from the tournament after losing to Rubin Kazan and PAOK, who qualified at the top of Group A.

Croatian midfielder Niko Kranjcar was impressive in his central playmaking role as he made his return from a thigh injury against Shamrock Rovers after being out injured with Croatia since November.

“Niko Kranjcar was fantastic,” manager Harry Redknapp said on Thursday.

“That was his first game for a couple of months and he only had two days’ training.”

Ledley King is still out with a knee injury sustained in training before Tottenham’s win over Bolton, while Roman Pavlyuchenko did not travel to Dublin because of back trouble.

Steve Pienaar and Jermain Defoe made rare starts for Tottenham with both scoring against Rovers but with Emmanuel Adebayor on fire with eight goals and five assists in 12 games, the Togo striker will likely start on Sunday alongside Rafael Van der Vaart, who has scored six league goals so far.

Martin O’Neill started his reign as new manager of Sunderland with a 2-1 win over Blackburn after Sunderland had gone five matches without a victory.

Swedish midfielder Sebastian Larsson has been instrumental in midfield this season, his injury time free-kick winner against Blackburn bringing his league goals tally to five this season.

O’Neill believes Spurs are on their way to becoming a top-four side but is confident the key to success against Spurs is to attack them.

“We have to go there, play well and play positively,” he said. “The victory on Sunday gave us more encouragement and confidence.”

“It will be a tough assignment but I think the players are capable of doing it.”

“We will create chances in the game, there’s no question about that. We have to try and take them.”

“Tottenham, as is their wont, will create chances too and we have to do our very best to prevent that.”