The Spurs Blog

Super striker Dimitar Berbatov is relishing the opportunity to take on THE SCUM this weekend.

“It’s a big game and is the first for me against them. It’s the biggest derby but playing in a hostile atmosphere will hold no fear for me. ” said Berbatov

“I like playing in a hostile atmosphere and, hopefully, we’ll win and I can score the goals.”

He said: “If we play like we did in the second half against Wigan we can achieve big things,”

“Before we started we were 13th in the league and that isn’t good enough for us. We have to be at the top and we will try to do that.”

Here are the Wigan highlights. What a performance… The man is brillant.

Egyptian striker Mido has been ruled out for at least two weeks as he continues his recovery from his groin injury.

Coach Jol said: “Mido has a little tear in his groin and that’s why he wasn’t fit for selection. He could be out for a couple of weeks.”

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We have agreed a deal with Sunderland regarding goalkeeper Ben Alnwick.

The keeper will arrive at Tottenham during the upcoming transfer window and will see Hungarian keeper Martin Fulop sign for the Black Cats on a permanent basis.

Skipper Ledley King is confident we can go all the way to lift the UEFA CUP this season.

“Being captain of the club, you realise you will get the job of lifting the trophy if we win a cup,” said King.

“It is something that I want to do in my career and with the team we have at the moment, I think we are definitely capable of winning something.”

Full-back Pascal Chimbonda thinks his move to Spurs from Wigan has helped him ‘step up’ a level.

“Moving to Tottenham helped me step up a level from Wigan, where I was struggling to win any international recognition,” said Chimbonda.

“It has always been a special dream of mine to play for France, but I wasn’t in the public eye enough when I was there.

“Wigan are not one of the bigger sides so as soon as I had the chance to move to Tottenham I jumped at it.”

He added: “I’m happy the way things have gone for me. I’ve been adopted by the fans straight away.

“Right from the first training session they started singing the song that the Wigan fans made up for me last season - that was a great start and things have just got better.

“The next aim for me is to help Tottenham win something and become a regular in the France squad.”

Martin Jol has quickly dismissed suggestions that his preferred strike partnership is Jermain Defoe and Dimitar Berbatov following their good link up in the 3-1 victory over Wigan on the weekend.

He said: “They did well but we don’t have a best partnership. We saw Robbie Keane against Leverkusen and Besiktas and against Chelsea in our best match of the season,”

On the performance against Wigan he added: “It’s always nice to have a win after a Thursday game - I thought we were terrific,”

Tottenham manager Martin Jol was satisfied with the performance of his team during the 3-1 victory over Wigan Athletic yesterday considering we had to to play in Europe a couple of days earlier.

“The Premiership is a tough league, at the end of the season the table does not lie and Wigan play a style which is very difficult to defend against.” said Jol.

“We are a footballing side, but our character came through today.

“We have the most points of the teams in the Uefa Cup, are in the Carling Cup quarter-finals and had a good win today. We can be pretty satisfied.”

Dimitar Berbatov was again on target in the UEFA Cup, this time against his former club Bayer Leverkusen.

The goal gave us a 1-0 win and saw us qualify for the next round of the competition.

I must say I am amazed that Berbatov is struggling to find his feet in the Premiership with his undoubted class but his European form keeps us smiling.

Boss Martin Jol was not that happy with the performance but was happy with the win.

He said: “When you have several chances and more situations where all we needed was a good final ball it is a disappointment.

“If Leverkusen had scored it would have been a disaster.

“We played as a team and played a bit better than them but you have to convert possibilities into goals.”

Bulgarian forward Dimitar Berbatov has admitted feeling ’sick’ when he first heard that Tottenham would be facing his old club Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Cup.

Speaking ahead of the clash between the two sides, Berbatov said: “I was sick,”

“If I do score it will be strange but I’m a professional player and it doesn’t matter if they are my friends. Like usual, you raise your hands to show you have scored.

“I was happy that I was there and now I have a lot of other things to do, the game tomorrow and the games in the future with Tottenham.”

“I’m really happy to be back here (In Leverkusen) but I have a job to do - during the 90 minutes there are no friends.”

Bayer Leverkusen head Michael Skibbe has praised his former striker Dimitar Berbatov ahead of our UEFA CUP clash with the German club.

Skibbe said: “He’s one of the best strikers in the world.

“He’s got wonderful technique, is very good with his head, both feet are very fast and all the time he has an eye for players in better positions. He’s very special.”