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Battered Tottenham faces Bolton

LONDON: Tottenham’s seemingly endless ability to sabotage its own fortunes has added injuries and suspensions to its list of problems going into what has become a must-win Premier League game against Bolton on Sunday.

Spurs won last season’s League Cup and was expected to be the strongest contender for fifth place in the Premier League, but strung out negotiations over the sale of star striker Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United for so long that it ran out of time to buy a replacement.

With Robbie Keane also sold in the off-season, that left the team short on firepower, while the failure to sign a long-needed central defender has meant it is weak at the back.

Missing stars

Bottom of the standings with two points from eight matches, Tottenham now has to overcome the suspension of Gareth Bale and Michael Dawson because of unnecessary red cards last weekend, and the probable absence through injury of Vedran Corluka and captain Ledley King.

Jonathan Woodgate could also be out of the match at White Hart Lane after injuring his groin in Thursday’s 2-0 UEFA Cup loss at Udinese, leaving Alan Hutton as the only first-choice defender fit to face a combative and increasingly skilful Bolton side.

Woodgate’s former club Leeds suffered a similar fall from grace — going from Champions League semifinalist in 2000 to relegation four years later — and the England defender can see similarities.

“We are worse than Leeds at the moment and we need a kick,” Woodgate said. “It’s mental and physical. If you don’t have a winning mentality you have a losing mentality, and we’ve got that at the moment.”

Even a first league win of the season wouldn’t lift Tottenham out of the relegation zone, but it would go some way to making players who were meant to be challenging at the other end of the table believe that they can avoid the drop.

Relegation looms large

But an almost total absence of confidence and an inability to turn possession into goals suggests a first demotion since 1977 is getting more and more likely.

“We’ve got to get stuck in and start winning games,” Woodgate said. “We’ve got to start learning and concentrating. We’ve got to start grafting. We’ve got to stand up now, but it’s going to be hard. We’re rudderless at the moment.”

Chairman Daniel Levy has said coach Juande Ramos is certain to keep his job, although the Spaniard arguably erred by leaving defensive lynchpin King out of last week’s loss at Stoke so he could play in the UEFA Cup. The fixtures: On Saturday: Everton vs Manchester United; Sunderland vs Newcastle; West Brom vs Hull City; Blackburn vs Middlesbrough.

On Sunday: Chelsea vs Liverpool; Manchester City vs Stoke City; Tottenham vs Bolton; Wigan vs Aston Villa; West Ham vs Arsenal; Portsmouth vs Fulham. —AP

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