Consent Preferences Spurs Odyssey Carabao Cup semi-final (2) match preview - Chelsea v Spurs, 24.01.2019
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Spurs Odyssey Carabao Cup semi-final (2) Preview - Chelsea v Spurs, 24.01.2019

· Preview for first leg of this tie
· First leg match report - Spurs 1 Chelsea 0
· See the current injury list for all Premier League Teams
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats

Spurs Full Cup Record against Chelsea


FA Cup

SEASON   RD   H/A   Score SCORERS

09-10    2     A     1-0  Humphreys
56-57    4     H     4-0  Harmer R Smith 
			  Stokes Medwin
63-64    3     H     1-1  Dyson
         3R    A     0-2
64-65    5     A     0-1
66-67    F     W     2-1  Robertson Saul
81-82    6     A     3-2  Archibald Hoddle 
			  Hazard
01-02    6     H     0-4
06-07    6     A     3-3  Berbatov, o.g., Ghaly
06-07    6R    H     1-2  Keane(pen)
11-12    SF    N     1-5  Bale, 56
16-17    SF    N     2-4  Kane, Dele


League Cup

71-72   S-F    A     2-3  Chivers, Naylor
71-72   S-F    H     2-2  Chivers, Peters
90-91   Q-F    A     0-0
90-91   Q-F    H     0-3
01-02   S-F    A     1-2  Ferdinand
01-02   S-F    H     5-1  Iversen, Sherwood
                          Sheringham, Davies
                          Rebrov
07-08    F     W     2-1  Berbatov (pen), Woodgate
14-15    F     W     0-2
18-19   SF(1)  W     1-0  Kane (pen)

Can Spurs go through - despite the odds?

In most of the betting markets for tomorrow night's game, Chelsea are odds on to win the game, but both teams are odds on to qualify for the Carabao Cup Final. It's all very tight then, despite the known handicaps upon Spurs. You might like to check out the advice being offered by www.omegatipsters.com. Should Chelsea win tomorrow night by one goal, there would be no extra time - just penalties.

We all know that the man who gave us our slender one-goal lead in the first leg of this tie - Harry Kane - will be unavailable to help us maintain or even increase that lead tomorrow. The big question for Spurs fans is how strong a team will we be able to put out? Son is still in the U.A.E with South Korea, who beat Bahrain yesterday to go through to the quarter-finals, and now we know that Dele Alli is out until the beginning of March, at least, with his hamstring injury sustained on Sunday at Craven Cottage.

There was at least some good news today from the club who announced that Moussa Sissoko, Victor Wanyama and Lucas Moura have all returned to training and are available for selection! I hope to see two of those three start this game!

Will Mauricio Pochettino continue to have faith in Paulo Gazzaniga, or does Hugo Lloris captain the side for this crunch game? There was more good news on Sunday with the return of Eric Dier albeit for a brief appearance at Fulham. Presumably Dier will start against Chelsea. The manager will have all of his defenders available for selection. Against Fulham we fielded numbers 1-2-3-4-5-6 for only the second time this season. The other time this happened was at Old Trafford in August when we won 3-0. The same again would be marvellous!

I had been thinking that Mauricio Pochettino might play a back three again, but with Sissoko available, I can see a 4-3-3, with Moussa next to Dier and Winks and Lamela, Lucas Moura and Eriksen up front. We shall see!

Both teams play next on Sunday in the FA Cup and I am sure Maurizio Sarri's focus as far as his strongest selection goes will be for this tie. After Chelsea's defeat at Arsenal the "Blues"' manager heavily criticised his players saying they were "extremely hard to motivate". I am sure that his public and no doubt private criticisms will have them fired up only too well for tomorrow night's decider.

Chelsea did not make the midday deadline for registering the loan signing of Gonzalo Higuain from AC Milan in time for this game, but his arrival should be formally confirmed very soon. For the moment we have to wonder if either Morata or Giroud will get a start or whether Eden Hazard will be a "false nine" for Chelsea. The fact is that Chelsea have scored in only two of their last five games, two of which have been lost (Spurs and Arsenal away) and one drawn (Southampton at home).

In my mind both Hazard and Willian will be the main threats to Spurs, although Hazard has not actually hit the net since Boxing Day when he scored both Chelsea's goals against Watford. One of those was from the spot.

There is no question that Spurs will be missing goal power tomorrow. Between them, Kane, Son and Dele have scored 39 of our 72 goals in all competitions this season. Hopefully, we are going to see Lucas Mouras, who has scored 8 goals, having a great impact at the start of the season when our World Cup stars were fatigued. Lucas also scored one of our most crucial goals of the season whene he hit the 85th minute equaliser at Barcelona to ensure our qualification for next month's Champions League Round of 6 game (first leg). Christian Eriksen has also chipped in with 6 club goals, as has Erik Lamela. One Spurs goal tomorrow night could be enough to make sure we play in the February 24th Final at our temporary home - Wembley.

Februry 24th is a great date, of course, because it was on that day 11 years ago that we won our last trophy against - Chelsea!

Our recent Cup history against Chelsea is not in our favour overall though, as we have lost one League cup Final, one League Cup semi-final and two FA Cup semi-finals against this opposition since that famous 2008 win. You have to go back to 1982 for our last cup win at Stamford Bridge. that was an FA Cup quarter-final when Steve Archibald, Glenn Hoddle and Micky Hazard scored our goals in a 3-2 win. It's still a bit hard for this Spurs fan to digest that such stars as Hoddle, Hazard and Roberts have played for both sides. Mind you, all three bleed Tottenham to this day!

Despite our injuries, I am going to back Spurs to preserve their lead and qualify for the final. I predict a 1-1 draw on the night.

Match referee Martin Atkinson has been in charge of three Spurs wins this season. Those were away to Newcastle and West Ham (Premier League), and also our magnificent 3-1 home win against Chelsea. VAR will be in operation for this game, with Andre Marriner in charge of TV observations. We do have reason to rue both these officials regarding previous matches against Chelsea, regarding what I call goal "invention" - not in our favour, of course.

· Spurs' record in recent London Derby matches

· "It was Twenty Years ago today!" - On 23rd January, 1999 we drew 1-1 away to Wimbledon in an FA Cup 4th Round game. David Ginola scored our goal.

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