Tottenham: 8 Bold Predictions When Spurs Visit Reading

There are very few things Tottenham and Reading have in common.

Tottenham have played in the top tier of English football 61 of the last 62 seasons. Reading's first season in the Premier League was 2006.

Tottenham have won the FA Cup seven times. Reading has only gotten as far as the semifinals. Once. In 1927.

But there's one thing that holds Tottenham and Reading together—both clubs haven't won a match in the first three weeks of the season. Both clubs are tied at two points apiece with neither offense able to find much footing.

There's a lot to look forward to in Spurs' fourth try at a win this season as the club welcomes the opportunity to face the newly promoted Royals of Reading. 

So sit back, relax and check out my bold predictions as Tottenham faces Reading.

Yeah, yeah, newly signed Hugo Lloris is mad—so mad, in fact, that Fox Sports reported that he's taking it up with Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas.

I swear, goalkeeper is the only position where this could happen and it not affect team chemistry on the pitch.

Any other position, and it'd just be expected that a player has to earn his way into the starting lineup—and if it didn't happen, well, let's just say weekday training sessions wouldn't be very productive.

Lloris will get his time between the posts, but I love that Brad Friedel is standing strong and not riding off into that good night. Villas-Boas will eventually put the French international into league matches, but not until he's earned it.

Friedel is ending his career as fiercely as he started it, and Reading won't be his last opponent.

This is part of a larger prediction that the outspoken Benoit Assou-Ekotto has a breakout season this year with Tottenham.

Toward the end of last season, he finally got into a groove of supporting the attack up the left sideline and then using his incredible athleticism to get back on defense if needed.

He's played over 250 matches on the club level, and before January of 2012, he'd only scored three goals in his senior career. Since then, he's scored another three goals and learned how best to use Gareth Bale in front of him at winger to his advantage in getting forward.

I think the 29-year-old scores his seventh goal at the club level and the second of this season.

Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici has had a disastrous start to the Royals' re-entry into first-tier football.

On opening day, the 27-year-old Australian let a howler go in against Stoke City's Michael Kightly, and the three goals he conceded in the final 20 minutes against Chelsea will haunt him for quite some time.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto has a powerful shot that will bounce off some unfortunate body part of Federici's, opening the scoring for Spurs and building the left-back's confidence going forward for the rest of the season.

Can't act hard core unless you predict hard core, right?

Emmanuel Adebayor is the best finisher on the Spurs squad and one of the best in the air in the top flight of English football.

According to WhoScored.com, the 6'3" behemoth won an average of nearly two aerial duels per match last season—many of those during corner kicks and set pieces.

How many times did the Togo international absolutely outmuscle and outjump opposing defenders when a teammate set him up with a potential header in the box? And how effective was he at whipping his frame around and punching the ball in the back of the net?

Gareth Bale will be the one to set him up, and Adebayor will be there to make it 2-0 just before the halftime whistle blows.

When Tottenham faced Norwich City two weekends ago, newly signed Clint Dempsey was nowhere near match fit.

But with two tough qualifiers under his belt for the U.S. national team—and a week's worth of training with the Americans—I think Dempsey is finally ready for some playing time with his new teammates at Spurs.

I see Dempsey getting the nod and replacing an ineffective Gylfi Sigurdsson to start the second half.

These are bold predictions, right?

Clint Dempsey looked good during international play this past weekend. Really good. Better than a lot of us—and fans in North London!—could have hoped for.

The Texas native has a knack for quick-strike plays. I think the 60th minute is a perfect time for it.

I really hope they cut to a shot of Hugo Lloris when the final whistle blows.

Brad Friedel may be less than a season's worth of matches away from professional retirement, but he's going out with one of the biggest bangs I've ever seen in world football.

I want Friedel to blank Reading. America wants Friedel to blank Reading. North London wants Friedel to blank Reading.

Sorry, Royals fans.

All bold predictions aside, earning three points against any Premier League opponent—especially a club like Reading that dominated the second tier last season and won the Championship title—is an accomplishment.

That's not to say it's impossible, though.

Despite a lack of scoring this summer and through the first three matches, Spurs haven't been too bad. Erase two goals conceded in the final minutes of matches against West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City, and you've got a six-point Spurs side near atop the Premier League table.

Andre Villas-Boas will get his first win in charge at Tottenham, and it'll be a knockout punch.

This is what I think will happen when Villas-Boas leads Tottenham against Reading on Sunday. Comment below and let me know your thoughts!