Tottenham and Sunderland have both brought in many new faces over the summer, and both recorded opening day losses; Tottenham were not especially impressive in their opening 1-2 loss at Middlesbrough as they were lacking a cutting edge, but Sunderland will feel more hard done by after holding Liverpool for most of the game, before a Torres strike ended the game 0-1.

Sunderland showed a lot more organisation defensively than they did last season, against Liverpool, and new signing Diouf was impressive, but they too lacked a real goal-threat.

Manager Roy Keane, has addressed this problem in the last week, by bringing in former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse and Northern Ireland striker David Healy should join him at the Stadium of Light.

With such a lot of activity in the transfer market for both sides, Tottenham and Sunderland may take a while to find a good balance and results may be inconsistent at the start of this season.

Since Juande Ramos’ appointment as Tottenham manager, Spurs’ record at White Hart Lane in the league has been reasonably good (7-4-3 last season from 14 home games since the start of November).

Match Betting Previews 23-25 August 2008 >>> Premiership: Blackburn v Hull - Liverpool v Middlesbrough - Newcastle v Bolton - Stoke v Aston Villa - Spurs v Sunderland - WBA v Everton - Fulham v Arsenal - Wigan v Chelsea - Man City v West Ham - Portsmouth v Man Utd Bundesliga: Dortmund v Bayern - Werder v Schalke - Stuttgart v Leverkusen Ligue 1: Le Havre v Marseille - Lyon v Grenoble - Bordeaux v Nantes Champions League: Arsenal v Twente - Liverpool v Standard - Atletico v Schalke

Sunderland’s away form last season was woeful and they took a league 2nd-worst 9 points from their 19 away games last season – Roy Keane will again be relying on Sunderland’s home games to be safe this season and will not expect to do too much away.

Tottenham should be able to win this one (as the odds of around $1.50 suggest), but with little value in the fixed odds, the handicap may offer a better option; 7 out of Tottenham’s 9 league wins under Ramos last season were by more than one goal and though there were goalscoring problems last week away to Middlesbrough, at home Spurs are free-scoring (only Man Utd scored more at home last season).

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Bet: Spurs to win on handicap (-1 goal) Odds: $2.60 Stake: 5pts Bookies: Bet365

Match Betting Previews 23-25 August 2008 >>> Premiership: Blackburn v Hull - Liverpool v Middlesbrough - Newcastle v Bolton - Stoke v Aston Villa - Spurs v Sunderland - WBA v Everton - Fulham v Arsenal - Wigan v Chelsea - Man City v West Ham - Portsmouth v Man Utd Bundesliga: Dortmund v Bayern - Werder v Schalke - Stuttgart v Leverkusen Ligue 1: Le Havre v Marseille - Lyon v Grenoble - Bordeaux v Nantes Champions League: Arsenal v Twente - Liverpool v Standard - Atletico v Schalke