Gylfi Sigurdsson eager for morale-boosting victory for Tottenham

Tottenham midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson wants to make amends for Saturday's disappointing defeat to Chelsea with a morale-boosting victory at Maribor tonight.

Andre Villas-Boas' new side went down 4-2 against his former club at White Hart Lane five days ago, having come from behind to at one stage lead 2-1.

Spurs now turn their attention to the Europa League, where they face Maribor in Slovenia this evening looking for a first victory in Group J after drawing both of their first two fixtures.

"I think it will be very important to get three points even though we are playing away from home," Sigurdsson said.

"We know they are good at home so we're looking forward to the game.

"We want to bounce back after the game against Chelsea as well so three points will be very important to us.

"After the game, obviously, we were a bit low and disappointed because I thought we bounced back at half-time and got back into the game in the second half.

"When you play Chelsea, they've obviously got a lot of quality and are the champions of Europe.

"We are very disappointed but now we're looking forward to this game. We want to bounce back and get three points in this game."

Tottenham are without several big names for tonight's match at Stadion Ljudski vrt.

Emmanuel Adebayor is sidelined with back pain and Mousa Dembele misses out with a hip complaint.

Brad Friedel remained at home with Hugo Lloris preferred to start in goal against Maribor, while Gareth Bale also stayed in the United Kingdom after his girlfriend gave birth to their first child at the weekend.

That news also saw the Wales international miss the defeat to Chelsea - a match in which right-back Kyle Walker's performance was criticised.

The 22-year-old was named the Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Season last term, but has not been as consistent this year.

After the weekend loss, Walker posted two angry messages via his Twitter account, kyle28walker, before closing it.

Tottenham, though, were at pains to stress that it was not closed due to abuse and Villas-Boas said the action came about because it was proving a distraction.

"Social media activity and Twitter is something we respect as long as it does not collide with the club's interests," the Portuguese said.

"I haven't had a conversation with Kyle before that. I did after. He said he lost a lot of time in it and in the end he decided to close it.

"It is personal decision because in the end it is his personal Twitter account and a couple of players are very active with it and a couple of players aren't.

"It is certainly a decision I respect. For me, for my management of the team, it doesn't make a big difference."

PA