Tottenham look to keep cup dreams alive at Selhurst Park

Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham travel to Selhusrt Park knowing that defeat would leave them out of both domestic cups in the space of four days.

His Spurs team fell on penalties to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final on Thursday after a brave display at Stamford Bridge ultimately ended in disappointment.

After going 2-0 down to strikes from N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard, they hit back through a Fernando Llorente header to level the tie at 2-2 on aggregate before their shootout exit.

They remain without Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Heung-Min Son for the FA Cup fourth round clash as well as Ben Davies who injured himself in the defeat to their west London rivals.

The accumulation of injuries is now starting to become the theme of Spurs’ season, reaching 37 separate injuries for the 2018/19 campaign.

This figure is quite extraordinary when they had only averaged 15.5 since the 2012/13 season but Pochettino will commit to staying his positive self.

He may opt to giving younger players such as Oliver Skipp and Kazaiah Sterling a chance in Sunday’s fixture but risks depleting the competitions that Tottenham are competing in to just two, the Premier League and Champions League.

Therefore, the FA Cup presents the most realistic chance of silverware for the Argentine’s side as Spurs battle rotation issues with injuries and a continuously busy schedule.

Crystal Palace on the other hand have had less injuries and more time to prepare for the fixture since narrowly losing 4-3 at Anfield last Saturday.

Roy Hodgson may give a start to new goalkeeper Lucas Perri, who has signed on loan until the end of the season from Sao Paulo. Palace were in somewhat of a keeper crisis before the Brazilian’s arrival with Wayne Hennessey and Vicente Guaita both injured leaving veteran Julian Speroni as Hodgson’s only option.

The two side’s last meeting in the FA Cup will be sure to give Roy Hodgson a slight boost going into Sunday’s fixture. A Martin Kelly goal at White Hart Lane secured Palace a 1-0 victory in 2016 as the Eagles went on to play in the FA Cup final that year, just losing out to Manchester United in extra-time 2-1.

Selhurst Park is sure to be rocking in order to create an unnerving atmosphere for the travelling Tottenham players, who will be desperate to bounce back and get back to winning ways.

The north London club have reached the semi-final of the competition in the past two seasons, losing out to Chelsea and Manchester United on those occasions.

Their most recent semi-final defeat on Thursday means that they have now lost five of their last six semi-finals, their only victory coming against then League One side Sheffield United in 2015.

Another defeat could send Tottenham’s season into disarray as they look towards a tough February which may see no action for Kane or Alli.