Tottenham in relatively unchartered relegation territory

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Tottenham will start a Premier League match in the bottom three for the first time since September 2011, when they travelled to Wolves in their third match of the 2011-12 season, having lost their first two fixtures.

They won that game 2-0 to move up to 13th place in the Premier League table.

In fairness, they had played just two games to everyone else's three games as their season-opener against Everton was postponed due to riots in Tottenham.

So, given how early on in the season that result was and the game in hand situation, what's far more relevant is the last time Tottenham were in the relegation zone beyond the first few games of a top-flight season.

The last time Tottenham started a Premier League match in the bottom three more than three games into a season was in January 2009. They started that home game against Portsmouth bottom of the table, but a 1-1 draw - thanks to Jermain Defoe's equaliser - moved them up to 16th place in the table.

It was the game where Harry Redknapp famously criticised Darren Bent for missing a late big chance to clinch all three points for Tottenham, saying: "My missus could've scored that one!"

Coincidentally, the last time Sunderland beat Tottenham came just over a year later, when they won 3-1 at the Stadium of Light in April 2010, and two of the Black Cats' goals were scored by Darren Bent (although he did also miss two penalties).