Panathinaikos v Tottenham: Visitors’ great run to continue

Andre Villas Boas takes his Tottenham team to Greece as they look to build on a great few weeks on the pitch, culminating in their first win over Man United in 26 attempts.

Spurs are 11/10 to beat Panathinaikos which is a rare piece of Ladbrokes generosity that punters should be exploiting.

The contrast between AVB and his predecessor Harry Redknapp are vast in number, yet one of the more pertinent differences is the Portuguese’s willingness to take the Europa League seriously. He fielded a close to full strength team against Lazio and will do the same again here.

It’s possible that the bookies are not envisaging this, perhaps expecting a load of kids to be on the plane to Athens but, with the former Chelsea boss, who guided Porto to this trophy in 2010, intent on doing well in Europe, it will not be the case.

Regularly a force in Greek football, Panathinaikos are currently languishing in eighth place domestically and are without a win in six in all competitions.

Noticeably lacking in the final third, they have failed to find the net in four of those six winless matches; back on-fire Spurs to take advantage of this.

With four wins from as many games domestically, things couldn’t be going better for AVB on his quest to prove his doubters across London that they were wrong to give him the boot.

Clint Dempsey, who opened his Spurs account in the win at Old Trafford, is an 11/2 shot to break the deadlock in the Olympic Stadium, whereas the likely spearhead of the attack, Emmanuel Adebayor, is an identical price.

Expect both to play here and they will definitely have too much for the hosts’ defence to handle. You can back both players at 7/4 to appear on the scoresheet at all, which is an excellent price, especially for the latter, as he bids to stake a claim for a regular starting berth.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date