Football comes home for Tottenham on Sunday. Swansea City visits, coming off a tough loss to Manchester United in the season opener that saw the Swans lose 4-1. It seems likely that summer signing Wilfried Bony will receive his first league start as Swansea tries to take it Spurs. However, the Swansea defense seems vulnerable ahead of the match, something that the Spurs' attack could take advantage of.
The Welsh side will head into the game on the back of a 5-1 win in the Europa League against Petrolul Ploiesti on Thursday - a result that Laudrup described as "excellent".
A late consolation goal from Gheorghe Grozav may have taken the shine off for Swansea, but despite being forced back into action with a relatively short turnaround, Laudrup believes that his side will now enter the White Hart Lane clash full of optimism.
"I’m not complaining about the fixtures," he said. "You have to play everyone and it will be difficult - but we are confident going into the game.
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"They had a very good squad last season, and they have bought some good players this summer.
"It may be a different Spurs to the one we played last year, but it will still be tough."
While Swansea fell 4-1 to Manchester United on the opening weekend, Tottenham were 1-0 winners against Crystal Palace.
That match saw Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado and Etienne Capoue all make their competitive debuts for the club, although Tottenham were without Gareth Bale as speculation continues over a potential world record move to Real Madrid.
And while he has had to cope without last season's Player and Young Player of the Year Bale so far this season, boss Andre Villas-Boas is pleased with his dealings in the window so far.
On Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur return to White Hart Lane for the first time this season and for their 115th season at the venerable venue. But the club's time at the Lane is ticking down as the NDP hums along and we creep closer to Spurs' new stadium.
For now, White Hart Lane still stands and on Sunday, 36,000 fans will pack it hoping the boys in white come away winners. That means continuing a week of Wales-hating and sending Swansea back home without anything to show for their trip to the capital.
Swansea enter the match relatively fit, with Nathan Dyer the only played injured, while Spurs are without Lewis Holtby and Emmanuel Adebayor. Benoit Assout-Ekotto is also likely to miss out and Gareth Bale is technically still part of the team so you can say he will be absent too, but that would be a pretty liberal definition of "part of the team" (and depending on who you believe, Adebayor may fall into this category as well).
The Swans were tapped as a team watch in the preseason, but they didn't look it last week against Manchester United. A bright start went for naught as the Red Devils punished Swansea's porous backline and Roberto Soldado will be foaming at the mouth.
Swansea scored five midweek in Europa League, but that was against Petrolul Ploiesti and they still did concede one at home. As promising as people may have thought Michael Laudrup's club were preseason, the first week of the season has not flattered them. Then again, it is the first week so who's to say anything about anyone.
This is Spurs' transition to Hate Wales Week 2. Do it.
Match date/time: Sunday, August 25; 11 a.m. ET, 4 p.m. GMT
Venue: White Hart Lane, London, England
