Where to watch Stoke City vs Tottenham Hotspur live on April 26, 2014

Topics: Live Stream, TV Schedules, Live Scores, Tottenham Hotspur, Stoke City, Premier League

The Britannia Stadium will play host to a Premier League encounter between Stoke City and Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, the 26th of April.

Preview: Tottenham looking to improve away form

The current season has been one to forget for Spurs and their fans. Their campaign has been characterized by a lot of disappointments including the dismissal of former manager Andre Villa Boas as well as some heavy defeats which have left the Lilywhites out of the running for a place in the top four.

Much of this has also been down to their disappointing away form which has seen them lose five in the17 matches they have played away from home in the Premier League.

Furthermore Spurs have not managed an away victory since February 12 when they scored a strong 4-0 victory at Newcastle. Either a loss for Tottenham on Saturday or a win for Arsenal when they face Newcastle on Monday, will officially extinguish Tottenham’s chances of a place in the top four this season.

This implies that Spurs have nothing left to play for this season but will be hoping to finish on a strong note especially for their manager Tim Sherwood who looks certain to be relieved of his duties by the end of the season. There has been growing speculation over the Englishman’s position with names of potential replacements already floating over the media. Sherwood might not be able to do enough in the last three matches to impress his superiors, but wins in the next three matches will allow Tottenham to achieve their highest Premier League tally of 72 points, a feat which they also attained last time out when Villas-Boas was in charge of the club.

Spurs will be confident of their chances having scored a comfortable 3-0 victory over their counterparts in the reverse fixture back in December at the White Hart Lane and also scored a 2-1 victory when the two sides met at Britannia Stadium last season. However it will only take a much improved performance from the North London side to get the better of Stoke who have been quite outstanding as of late. French international Hugo Lloris has questioned the performance of his teammates and has claimed that as a team they have not been entirely committed to their goals.

"It will be difficult to do worse [next season]! Especially against the top four or five teams," he told reporters.

"We have had a lot of bad defeats. This season there has sometimes been the feeling that we have given up. We can’t allow this kind of behaviour.

"We have to show more character. We did it in other games. But we have to keep our mentality in every game at the best level because in this league you have to be 100 per cent every time you play."

The 27 year old earned the man of the match award for his heroics in the 3-1 victory over Fulham last time out but he refused to recognize it as an achievement reiterating that his fellow teammates were not up to the task.

"It is always a pleasure to receive that kind of thing but if the goalkeeper is Man of the Match then it means the team didn’t do the job properly," he added.

"I’m a competitor and I try always to do my best for the team. I want to see my team-mates do the same.

Stoke on the other hand have enjoyed a fine campaign under Mark Hughes. The Potters have their sights set not just on their highest point tally but also their highest finish in the Premier League. Stoke have never reached the 50 point mark and can better their highest ever tally of 47 points they achieved in the 2009/10 season should they managed to notch four points from their remaining three games.

Stoke however will have to do the job without defender Robert Huth who has been ruled out of the season whereas Matthew Etherington is also expected to remain on the sidelines due to a back injury. Oussama Assaidi who is on loan from Liverpool should however be in contention for a role in the starting eleven after recovering from an injury.

Tottenham on the other hand will have to do without a number of players. All of Erik Lamela, Kyle Walker, Jan Vertonghen, and Etienne Capoue have suffered from long term injury layoffs and are unlikely to play this season. Tim Sherwood might also be without Dembele and Roberto Soldado who are major doubts for Saturday’s encounter.