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Premier League Preview: Tottenham v Portsmouth

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Andrew French admires the way Tottenham are sticking to their task in the Premiership when, in reality, their season is over

Anyone who saw Robbie Keane's reaction to being substituted in the game at Manchester City last weekend will know that the current Tottenham captain is certainly not letting his season just peter out.

It would perhaps be understandable if some at White Hart Lane did though. They have the Carling Cup in the trophy cabinet, have no fear of relegation but are still far enough adrift of those above them to make moving much further up the table a relatively tall order.

In short, Spurs are nicely tucked away for the last few weeks of the season with a piece of silverware for their fans to crow about - not to mention that cup thrashing of their great rivals.

Yet Keane's demonstrable anger at being hauled off on Sunday suggests that the players are still very motivated - although stories that manager Juande Ramos is still not sure which of his squad feature in his ongoing plans may have something to do with that.

Motivation should not be an issue for Portsmouth. They have the FA Cup Final and European football next season on their agenda. Once again Harry Redknapp has got his side punching above their weight, and perhaps this season he might well get some tangible reward for his efforts.

Pompey have a pretty lamentable recent record at White Hart Lane though. They have lost all four Premiership games they have played there, and conceded 12 goals in the process.

The South Coast side have a good away record (eight victories) this season but with so much to look forward to in the coming weeks, there is every chance their heads may be turned. How often will they be favourites for the FA Cup after all?

Therefore, I'm finding it hard to look beyond backing Spurs at [1.93]. The draw is [3.45] to back with Pompey priced at [5.1].

This is certainly a game to look at the Overs market - although probably any Spurs fixture this season is an occasion to expect some net-bulging action.

Their matches this term have produced more goals than other Premiership side: 13 league games at White Hart Lane have delivered a whopping 59 goals. With Portsmouth's 15 away games seeing the ball hit the net 41 times, everything seems to be there for a high-scoring encounter.

At the risk of the seemingly obvious turning round to slap me in the face, I'll be having a little bit of the [3.3] available to back over 3.5 goals.

In line with that, a correct score bet of 3-1 to Spurs at [17.5] offers a potentially tasty return, although I'd also suggest chucking in the 2-2 draw at [16.0] as, having watched Spurs throw away the lead at Man City, their defending suggested they could well contribute to a goal feast at either end of the pitch.

Obviously it could be a case of bunging all my eggs in one basket, but I'll also consider backing no clean sheet for either side: Tottenham at [1.5] and Pompey at [1.19].

Each of the last six Premiership games at White Hart Lane have seen the opening goal scored inside 30 minutes, so backing the first strike to arrive between 0 and 10 (at [5.5]), 11 and 20 (at [5.2]) or 21 and 30 (at [6.2]) is worth looking at.