Adebayor targeting four home wins

EMMANUEL Adebayor called on Tottenham to cement their place in the top four by taking maximum points from their home games this month.

Tottenham passed up an opportunity to close on Manchester City and Manchester United on Saturday when they could only draw 1-1 at Barclays Premier League newboys Swansea. A win would have put Harry Redknapp’s men within four points of joint leaders United and City, who suffered shock defeats to Blackburn and Sunderland respectively this weekend.

But with home games against West Brom, Everton, Wolves and Wigan coming up this month, Spurs have a perfect opportunity to show that they can achieve the top-four spot that escaped them last term.

“We have four games at home we have to focus on them and make sure we get maximum points out of them,” he said. “Now 2011 is over, we are looking forward to 2012 and we have a big chance to finish in the top four, or maybe get second or third. The season will be long and tough but we just have to keep going, keep believing we can get in that top four and if you want to finish in the top four these are the games you cannot lose or draw.”

That view is endorsed by Van der Vaart. He thinks the disappointment at drawing against a side with a stellar home record this season shows how far Spurs have come last 12 months.

It’s little consolation to Roy Hodgson. With the injuries mounting he has thrown down the challenge to West Brom’s fringe players . Hodgson is already without defender Jonas Olsson and midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu and now skipper Chris Brunt (leg) and striker Shane Long (back) are struggling to be fit to face Spurs. It means the likes of Somen Tchoyi, Simon Cox and Graham Dorrans will come into contention to step up from the substitute’s bench as Albion look to bounce back from the 1-0 home setback against Everton.

“At the moment it is fair to say our injury situation is a fairly drastic one,” he said. “Players who have been sitting on the bench for a long time will get a chance to show what they can do. It is not helped by the quick turnaround in fixtures. But, for the next game, we are going to be stretched to put out the type of team I would like to put out. We won’t be able to field our strongest team, we will only have one day’s rest after the exertions of Sunday, and it’s not something I am looking forward too at this moment.”

The fitness of Brunt and Long is giving Hodgson cause for concern and he has already admitted he wants to bring in quality players to bolster the depth of the squad during January.

“It is a painful one [his leg] for Chris. It is a job to assess exactly what happened,” the veteran coach added.

“He had no-one near him at the time. We will have to wait and see what the doctors and the scan say. Long got through the game but he has a quite serious back problem and needed an injection to play.”