Stoke City vs Tottenham: This is where the match will be won and lost - Danny Higginbotham

INSIDE FOOTBALL: Wide areas will be key to tonight's match

Tottenham full-back Danny Rose enjoys pushing up the field

I’m really looking forward to tonight’s game between Stoke and Tottenham. I think it will be a really interesting tactical battle and gives Spurs a chance to take advantage of one of Stoke’s weak points.

As we know, Tottenham play 4-2-3-1 and the three players behind Harry Kane - of late that’s been Erik Lamella, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli - all play very narrow, tucking in behind the striker and looking for little pockets of space.

This will force the Stoke full-backs to play narrow so that they help the central defenders mark what is effectively a front four. In turn this creates space for the flying Tottenham full-backs to exploit and deliver crosses from.

The wide midfielders dropping in is key because Tottenham almost play with a front six when the full-backs bomb on. Spurs’ four forwards will have the Stoke back four playing within the width of the 18-yard box.

Now, to counter this you have to play wide men who will track back. Louis van Gaal played Juan Mata in that role against Spurs at White Hart Lane a couple of week’s back: Spurs beat Manchester United 3-0 and a couple of the goals came from wide areas - that says it all. Mata wasn’t able to keep running back with the Spurs left-back Danny Rose.

For Stoke, they normally play Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri on the wings. This is where the danger may be for the home team tonight. Not from Arnautovic, he has become miles better at tracking back over the last couple of seasons, but I’m not too sure about Shaqiri and his defensive discipline when it comes to doing the dirty work.

Stoke may be better off playing Mame Biram Diouf or Ibrahim Afellay in that wide position: they are better at putting in a defensive shift. It is so crucial because the wide areas are where the game will be won and lost.

One team who did it to good effect against Spurs recently were West Ham, who beat them 1-0 at Upton Park. Slaven Bilic’s team set up with a back three and a holding midfielder. But they played two wing-backs and these players picked up the Tottenham full-backs, stopping them getting space to get crosses into the box. It worked a treat.

Interestingly, West Ham then tried the same trick against Arsenal last weekend but Arsene Wenger’s team as a rule put fewer crosses into the box and instead like to play through the middle so the tactic was less successful. The Gunners scored twice with through balls and West Ham changed to a back four.

But tonight it will be all about the wings and the movement of Kane, Alli, Erikssen and Lamella and the space that creates for the full-backs. Will Stoke be wise to it? We wait and see…