Welcome. Blood and horror on the streets of Rome last night as a group of travelling Spurs fans were caught in a premeditated ambush of bat and knife-wielding Lazio Ultras.

Not content with re-setting the Pocket Watch of Human Progression back to the Dark Ages with their monkey chanting in London last month, the Roman club have once again shown themselves to have a despicable smearing of knuckle-draggers among their number. Reports suggest that ten Spurs fans have been injured- two of which have been stabbed while one remains in a critical condition:

“There were Tottenham supporters here to celebrate, they were drinking and singing but quietly, so the situation seemed to be under control, but then these people came aggressively and they got inside and they were looking for these English guys, trying to catch them and they started to throw the chairs and tables.

“It is horrible. If you throw stones and knuckle-dusters I think you want to hurt someone.”

Look after each other, Tottenham fans. Look after each other.

Team For Tonight

Lloris, Walker, Vertonghen, Caulker, Naughton, Sigurdsson, Sandro, Carroll, Bale, Dempsey, Adebayor

Subs: Cuidicini, Huddlestone, Lennon, Defoe, Dembele, Dawson, Livermore

Quotes from Guardian Football

A seven-goal North London derby it was, then. Regrettably five of those goals went to our fiendish neighbours and just two…well, I’m sure you can do the numbers. There’s much to be learned in defeat, of course, if you’re an open-minded sort: first, this kind of nonsense would’ve never happened under Harold James Redknapp’s stewardship and second, writing in a notebook is the hallmarks of a man with the last thread of sanity sprouting from his ear.

Making notes, according to The Mail, is an act of bibbling lunacy. Terry Connor makes notes. Certainly not a credible manager wishing to be taken seriously. You wouldn’t catch Mourinho making notes. Or even a good British manager like David Moyes.

Away from all the tabloid stink-palming of Villas-Boas, the game was a grim but perhaps avoidable catastrophe. That’s not to say Spurs wouldn’t have buckled under the weight of an Arsenal comeback had Adebayor not gone all Chopper O’ Braindead on Cazorla- we were pegged back by City the week before- but at least we’d have had a firmer base on which to defend our lead or even send out more invites to the goal party. They looked fairly whiffy at the back, it has to be said.

Villas-Boas’ second-half tactics were brave in that he didn’t just put blind faith in trying to contain Arsenal and keep the score from spiralling out of control and into I’m-not-going –outside-for-a-month territory. Switching to three-at-the-back was a courageous move in light of the home side already having put our defence under considerable pressure in the half’s final throes. The temptation to limit the damage must’ve been great so we must doff our caps for that. Clint Dempsey probably had his best game for us, too, so the only way is up.

And up we must go. The reality now is that we’ve lost four out of the last five in the League and we need to show some of this much fangled character to turn the tide. Mitigating circumstances aside- injuries, red cards, Presidential elections- Spurs and Villas-Boas have some work to do. Starting in Rome. Which, I hear, wasn’t built in a day.

We’ve got your back, Andre.

God, did you scope out all the squares playing in the Champions League last night? How embarrassing. Chumpions League more like. Am I right? Who’s with me?

With their easy confidence, fashionable haircuts and breath-taking ability; who’re they trying to impress? Not me, that’s for sure. Messi, Pirlo, Scweinsteiger. BORING! Newsflash, poindexter. No-one likes you anymore. All the cool kids play in the Europa League now. Not that over-hyped, corporate fun-vacuum. The Europa Leag-

-oh I give up.

Yes, Europe’s premier club competition is obviously where we’d all like to be this season. At the turn of the year, Spurs were essentially in the limo, on the way to the prom with the loveliest girl in the school- and for reasons we haven’t got the bandwidth to go into here- we, not so much broke down, as flaming barrel-rolled into heavy on-coming traffic. A right old mess.

But you want to hear something good? Tottenham host Lazio tonight in a European competition our coach has not only won before, but has plans to do so again. Earlier in the week, Andre Villas-Boas’ mouth went and said this;

“If we can win a trophy, that represents a lot for Tottenham Hotspur’s history as well and would be something really special.”

The Rome giants arrive in London tonight, like us, on the back of a 3-1 away win from the weekend. While Jermain Defoe was making lean mince out of Brian McDermott’s slipshod backline on Sunday, 800-odd miles south-west in Verona, Hernanes, Klose and co. were wreaking similar such havoc against Chievo. Very unlike us, however, this latest victory comes in a line of three, having beaten Atlanta and Palmero in their opening two fixtures. This, then, a proper team. At that, it would seem, a proper bit of research. I must be ill.

Whether we can expect an all-guns-blazing, full strength Lazio to turn up is perhaps hard to guess. Their manager, Vladimir Petković, has gone down the familiar ‘I’m super serious about this competition’ track and it’s true Italy could do with the odd coefficient point or two. Whatever the case, it should be quite an evening under the lights.