Tottenham v QPR

Last week’s remarkable win for QPR against Chelsea shouldn’t lead to an urgent reassessment of either team. If anything, it was pretty impressive how effective Villas-Boas’ side were with nine men, and a little alarming how much Warnock’s side struggled to hold on with such a significant advantage.

It some ways the Hoops are a horribly difficult team to predict. The fluctuations in their performance level may well be the most diverse in the Premier League. As excellent as they were in a 3-0 win at Molineux, they were as bad or worse in the 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Fulham. The standard of opposition appeared to be similar, yet the results were shockingly contrary.

It appears that Neil Warnock has a team that can compete until the game is getting away from them. The 4-0 defeat to Bolton on the opening day was an example of a match that was going ok, but then the wheels came off. Against superior opposition, this is likely to lead to some heavy defeats. Tottenham certainly fit into that category, and I’m attracted to the 11/4 Coral offer on the hosts winning this encounter by three goals or more.

Harry Redknapp’s side may not be able to rival Manchester City for headlines and eye-catching scorelines, but the points are pretty much coming in at the same rate over the past two months. Since the arrival of Scott Parker and Emmanuel Adebayor, Spurs are unbeaten and have only dropped two points. They have scored at least twice in each of their last six league games.

This will be QPR’s toughest test to date this season - given that Chelsea self-destructed and played for an hour two men light! An away trip to one of the serious Champions League aspirants is a whole new experience for many of Warnock’s players and there must be doubts as to whether they are yet ready to cope with the challenge. I fear that Sunday will be little more than a harsh learning experience for the boys from Loftus Road.