Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
We may have seen the heroics of Lincoln in the F.A. Cup yesterday when they disposed of Premier League outfit Burnley and Today the focus shifts to Craven Cottage as Fulham look to create a giantkilling of sorts of their own when they play host to Tottenham in a cup London derby.
For Tottenham they have already suffered cup disappointment once already this week after a somewhat surprising defeat to Gent in the Europa League. The obvious concern now is that they not only lose a second cup game in a week but also a third straight game in all competitions.
Many felt that the trip to Belgium would have been the perfect antidote after a poor performance away at Liverpool 8 days ago but that away day misery continued as a near full strength line up were outclassed by a side that were 8th in the Belgian First Division going into Thursday’s encounter.
The fact that Mauricio Pochettino named the team which he did would indicate that the Europa League sits higher in the list of priorties for this season but after defeat to Gent the trip to Craven Cottage will arguably take on extra importance.
Does Pochettino go with a strong line up again or will more eggs be put into the return tie at Wembley with Gent on Thursday. One change that looks set to be enforced is Harry Kane looking set to miss out after picking up an injury in Belgium.
The hope is that it’s more of a precautionary measure what with that aforementioned game on Thursday, with the more important hope is that he does not miss out on any further Premier League action what with Stoke traveling to White Hart Lane next Sunday Lunchtime.
The decision as to who will start up front will once again be between Heung-min Son and the much maligned Vincent Janssen. Manager Mauricio Pochettino has reportedly demanded more from his Dutch international signing as his debut season with the North London club has failed to come anywhere near the expectations set out for him.
Hosts Fulham come into this game sitting 8th in The Championship and although that may be two places away from the play-offs they are 9 points adrift of Sheffield Wednesday who currently hold the final play-off spot. Therefore they have their work cut out to try and eat in that gap to earn a crack at a return to the top flight.
But league form is not the focus Today, it’s purely cup action and Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic will be looking to mastermind another top flight scalp in this competition after already disposing of Marco Silva’s Hull in the previous round.
Their last two league matches have resulted in 3-2 wins for Fulham, with both Nottingham Forest and Wigan being disposed off in the past week. Those results show that they have goals in their team but also a tendency to ship them at the other end.
Will there be goals in store this Afternoon. Well Tottenham will certainly need to rediscover their attacking guile that has served them so well this season, although that said it’s an attribute that has deserted them in their last 180 minutes of action.
The last thing that Tottenham or Fulham will want a replay so expect both sides to try and kill this one off before the end of Afternoon. Tottenham made very heavy work of disposing of Wycombe in the previous round and they will aim to make lighter work of Fulham.
Not having Harry Kane will of course be a big blow and a lot will depend on how strong Tottenham’s line up will be but you would imagine that extra quality should be enough to see them through. But then I said that about Gent, I guess we will just have to see how this one pans out.
