Goal-shy Spurs try to pull shutters down vs Chelsea

The most interesting encounter of the weekend is scheduled for London tomorrow when neighbours Tottenham and Chelsea face each other in their 106th derby at White Hart Lane.

This season the two clubs are different in their approach as chalk and cheese.

While Chelsea are almost in their now-familiar place, only second to leaders Manchester United on goal difference, Tottenham are again blowing hot and cold in the Premier League.

The main cause for the Spurs' setback is a dearth of goals that hit Martin Jol's team in the league. It will be no surprise tomorrow if they deploy one striker and seek to share the spoils against the champions.

Tottenham have scored a mere six goals in ten league matches - only Sheffield United have scored less - four goals. Spurs' miserable total came with a nap hand victory at home and one away.

This week, Jol said he may consider a bid for Real Madrid's David Beckham. However, he must be aware that a manager's life only depends on his latest outcomes and results.

The Blues, now almost through to the knockout stage of the Champions League, have been a scourge for Tottenham at White Hart Lane in the Premiership. In 14 years, the Whites still have to register a three-pointer. The results denote five draws and nine wins for Chelsea.

Man. United-Portsmouth. Fin-ally, Wayne Rooney's goal-drought has ended with a never-to-be-forgotten hat-trick for Manchester United away at Bolton.

This is the first treble for Rooney for the Red Devils in the league. The last United player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League was Ruud van Nistelrooy in the 4-1 win at Leicester on September 27, 2003.

In the Champions League, a depleted United side were surprised by FC Copenhagen in midweek. The Danes won 1-0 for a memorable victory.

Alex Ferguson, who stated that he wanted at least one more Champions League triumph before retiring after 20 years at the helm, laughed off the 'silly' managers who criticised Sam Allardyce's tactics at Bolton.

Portsmouth, despite losing four times in six League and Cup outings, are still in fourth place.

West Ham-Arsenal. This is another London derby where the protagonists had different fortunes in their last Premiership outings.

The Gunners dropped another two vital points at home to Everton. It seems, they still have to come to grips with their new stadium after they had played for more than 80 years at a 'compact' Highbury.

When they played their Champions League matches at Wembley some years back, Arsenal failed to register a win.

In the Champions League, Arsenal found themselves in a maze in midweek after they gained only one point at the Emirates Stadium against CSKA Moscow and now face an uphill task to qualify.

The Hammers had a poor start to the season but many of the neutral fans enjoyed watching West Ham claiming their second league win of the season against Blackburn.

Liverpool-Reading. Ten days ago these two sides met at Anfield in a League Cup third round match when the Reds held the upperhand by an odd goal in seven victory.

In their last league outing, Liverpool beat Aston Villa 3-1 to jump to eighth place in the standings.

For the umpteenth time this week, Rafael Benitez insisted he had no intention to part with team skipper Steven Gerrard.

At Anfield, Liverpool beat Bordeaux 3-0 to qualify for the knock-out phase of the Champions League.

The Royals, who have loaned goalkeeper Graham Stack to Leeds, have lost four straight matches in league and cup action.

Bolton-Wigan. In their first four matches at the Reebok Stadium, the Wanderers kept a perfect record and did not concede a goal. However, everything came tumbling down as Manchester United humiliated them with a 4-0 rout last week.

But Bolton will pick themselves up as they have been doing in the latest seasons and will leave no stone unturned to return to winning form against Wigan.

The Latics, having earned back-to-back league wins for the second time this season, signed goalkeeper Chris Kirkland permanently from Liverpool (in the region of £1m).

Fulham-Everton. The Blue side of Merseyside return to London this weekend after their 1-1 draw at Arsenal. That was their first point in 11 years at the Gunners' den.

Everton's David Moyes is relishing the fact that in midweek his side will face Arsenal once more in the fourth round of the League Cup, this time at Goodison Park.

As with the case of Arsenal, Everton will have to break a barrier if they want to return home happy today. In fact, in six visits to Fulham's patch, they lost all their league matches and scored just two goals in the process.

The last Everton win in the top flight at Fulham was on August 20, 1966 - a 1-0 win in the opening fixture of the season.

Aston Villa-Blackburn. Another record that fell last Saturday belonged to Aston Villa. They lost their first Premiership match of the season away at Liverpool. Villa were the only side not to finish on the losing end.

These are early days for Martin O'Neill at Villa Park, but he is surely on the right track. The ex-Celtic manager remarked that he had set his sights on regularly delivering European football to the Midlands club.

Blackburn will be without injured striker Jason Roberts. He fractured a metatarsal bone in the 1-2 loss at West Ham.

Watford-Middlesbrough. Middlesbrough lost at Manchester City in Monday night's match despite having Jonathan Woodgate and Robert Huth in the heart of their defence.

In the only season (1999-00) that Watford were in the Premiership, Boro gained four points from the two direct clashes between these two teams - a 1-1 draw at home and a 3-1 victory at Vicarage Road.

Charlton-Man. City. While the Addicks are still in troubled waters, Man. City received a boost with their victory over Middlesbrough. A win for any of these two teams today will be priceless but, generally, such tight matches end in 0-0 draws.

City chairman John Wardle claimed that survival alone could not be viewed as a success for his club this season.

Newcastle-Sheffield Utd. The Magpies, having been pushed to fourth from bottom, must stand up and be counted. How can a club with more than 50,000 home attendances be in this dire position?

Chairman Freddy Shepherd is looking to the future despite takeover speculations.

Injury-prone Kieron Dyer is in the stiffs once more, out for two weeks after a training ground mishap.