· See the current injury list for all Premier League Teams
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats

Full Record of Cup games between Spurs and Aston Villa

FA CUP

Season   Rd  H/A  Result   Scorer(s)
1902-03  QF   H    2-3     Copeland, Woodward
1903-04  2    A    1-0     Jack Jones
1919-20  QF   H    0-1     -
1920-21  QF   H    1-0     Banks
1933-34  5    H    0-1     -
1960-61  5    A    2-0     Neal (o.g), Jones
1961-62  6    H    2-0     Blanchflower, Jones
1968-69  5    H    3-2     Greaves (2 - 1 pen), 
                           England
1981-82  5    H    1-0     Falco
1991-92  3    A    0-0     -
1991-92  3R   H    0-1     -

LEAGUE CUP

Season   Rd  H/A  Result   Scorer(s)
1968-69  2    A    4-1     Chivers (3), Jones
1970-71  F    W    2-0     Chivers (2)
1987-88  3    A    1-2     Ardiles
1993-94  5    H    1-2     Caskey
2013-14  3    A    4-0     Defoe (2), Paulinho, Chadli

Who's "Up for the Cup"?

Who's "Up for the Cup" then? After an exciting festive season, when Spurs completed a run of five consecutive Premier League wins and confirmed their place in the Premier League title race, we now have a respite from that tension and start what will hopefully be an FA Cup run that will take us to Wembley. We have seen a bit of Wembley already this season, but we want to see it again, not just for The Europa League; not just for an FA Cup semi-final, but for a first FA Cup Final for 26 years! That's an appalling statistic for Spurs fans, whose team used to be renowned for their record number of wins (8) which has long since been emulated and beaten. We won't say by who!

Aston Villa might not have won the FA Cup since 1957 when one of Pat Jennings' heroes Peter McParland scored both Villa's goals in a 2-1 win over Manchester United, but they have at least appeared in the final twice since we won the Cup in 1991.

In 2000 they lost 1-0 to Chelsea, and less than two years ago, former Spurs coach Tim Sherwood took them to the Final, where they were thrashed by Arsenal. Villa's demise was already well under way, with relegation narrowly avoided, but confirmed last year with a miserable 17 points in bottom place.

Former Hull boss (also a former Birmingham boss) Steve Bruce is the latest incumbent of the managerial chair at Villa Park, given the task of getting the club back in the Premier League. The club has certainly had an improved run since Bruce was appointed in October, and have lost just two of their last 14 games. In the process, "The Vilans" have gone up from 19th to 12th place, but Bruce knows he faces a tough task to win the ever competitive race for a place in the elite league.

With a busy league schedule still to come, Bruce might be tempted to field a less than full strength team for this game. After all, he knows that Mauricio Pochettino will be likely to rest key players and give important game time to other squad members. Bruce's problem is that even a Spurs second team is likely to be too hard for Villa to beat.

The game was chosen for BBC television coverage and kicks off at 4pm on Sunday. Whether interested parties around the world will get the sort of access that they have for Premier League football is questionable. Certainly, I find that Cup games get less response on the Spurs Odyssey post-match surveys, which leads me to believe that TV coverage is not as wide as it is for the prestigious FA Cup Final.

This could have been the first season in nearly 40 years in which we did not play Aston Villa, who until last year's relegation, had been one of seven ever-present teams in the Premier League. The last season in which we did not meet was our season in Division Two in 1977-78. Villa had themselves spent 8 seasons out of the top flight between 1967 and 1975, and were a Third Division side when we beat them in the 1971 League Cup Final thanks to two goals by Martin Chivers.

This is the first time we have met Villa in the FA Cup since the Third Round 25 years ago in January 1992. We were defending FA Cup winners, but our defence only lasted as long as the Third Round replay after a 0-0 draw at Villa Park before Dwight Yorke's 10th minute goal in the replay at White Hart Lane was enough to take Villa through. Villa, managed by Ron Atkinson, were quite a force in the early Premier League years and were runners-up in the 1992-93 season with Dean Saunders and Dalian Atkinson leading their score chart that season. Dalian Atkinson died in tragic circumstances only last August, aged just 48.

The last time we met Villa in Cup competition was in September 2013 in a 4-0 trouncing by Spurs at Villa Park. Harry Kane made his first senior start for Spurs, but didn't score. Jermain Defoe scored two, making him our fifth highest ever goalscorer, behind Cliff Jones. Paulinho and Chadli also scored. Villa were on the wane as a Premier League force by this time, and their relegation last year came as no surprise. This 4-0 win came during a run of five games in which we beat the Birmingham side, scoring 15 goals without reply.

We've had some famous FA Cup wins against Villa, and have beaten them no less than four times on our way to FA Cup winning seasons in 1921, 1961, 1962 and 1982!

In March 1921, Villa came to White Hart Lane for a fourth round tie. Spurs forward Jimmy Banks scored the only goal to secure our passage in a year when we woud beat Wolves in the Final. Banks played in that Cup Final, but between 1914 and 1923 he played just 79 times for Spurs scoring 10 goals in a career that was interrupted by The Great War.

In 1961, on the way to our Double success, Cliff Jones had everything to do with our 2-0 win at Villa Park in the fifth round. In his excellent Spurs Odyssey series on The Double, Brian Judson wrote this about our win that day:-

"....Spurs returned to Villa Park for the 5th Round of the FACup. Over 69,000 spectators crammed into the ground but the Villa fans had little to cheer about. In the thirty minutes before half-time, Spurs attained standards so high no one could have lived with them that day.

Spurs passed the ball around so fast and so quickly the Villa players must have become dizzy. In the 18th minute, White began the move down the left wing that, five passes later, ended with Jones smashing a vicious shot towards Sidebottom's goal but the ball struck Neal and flew high into the roof of the net. Shortly after the half-hour, the ball ran from Dyson to White, on to Smith and then to Allen. Allen provided the pass that enabled Jones to fire in a shot that was absolutely unstoppable. Thereafter, Spurs simply toyed with Villa, knowing there was no way back for the hosts, who had been bludgeoned into defeat by Spurs' rapier like skills."

The following year, when we successfully defended the FA Cup, former Villa player Danny Blanchflower and Jones (again) scored in another 2-0 win for Spurs at The Lane. This time we met in the quarter-final. Finally, in February 1982, Mark Falco scored the only goal of the game in a fifth round tie.

That last League Cup meeting in September 2013 preceded a home Premier League game against Chelsea in which we played well and drew 1-1 with an excellent Gylfi Sigurdsson goal. This meeting follows a home game against Chelsea in which we also played well, asserting our title-race credentials!

The personnel of any relegated team tends to chanage radically, and things were no different for Villa. Goalkeeper Brad Guzan and midfielder Adam Traore went to Middlesbrough in the summer, and former Blackburn striker Rudy Gestede has just joined them. Scott Sinclair went to Celtic, but perhaps the most successful of their departing players has been Idrissa Gueye, who has impressed at Everton.

There are familiar former premier league players in the Villa squad such as James Chester, Ritchie De Laet and Mile Jedinak, but the player who has been scoring most goals for Villa this season came from Bristol City. He is Ivorian International Jonathan Kodjia, and sadly for Villa, the 27 year old has been called up for the African Nations Cup. Rudy Gestede is the next highest league scorer for Villa, so it looks like they'll be lacking goal power for this game.

Trying to predict the Spurs team for this game is tricky. With almost a full week to go before we face West Brom next Saturday, does Mauricio Pochettino go for wholesale changes, or does he play a mix of regular and fringe players? A team reading Vorm; Trippier, Carter-Vickers, Wimmer, Davies; Wanyama, Winks; Sissoko, Eriksen, Nkoudou; Janssen ought to win comfortably. I'll go for a 3-0.

Referee Mike Dean has been in the news this week, after the West Ham defeat at The London Stadium to Manchester United. Sky's pundits were gleefully laying into the referee and his officials, and in fairness the red card that Mr. Dean showed to Feghouli has been rescinded. Personally, I have no qualms with Mr. Dean, who I consider to be one of our best referees.

· Reviewing Spurs' last Champions League Season - 2010-11. 6 years ago we beat Charlton 3-0 at home in the FA Cup Third Round. 19 year old Andros Townsend scored on his debut.

Follow @spursodyssey