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Crystal Palace Face Tottenham In FA Cup

The FA Cup is a polarising competition at the best of times, which is a far cry from the years when it was considered to be the most valuable trophy you could win in English football. Nonetheless, the magic of the cup is still alive and well in some corners of the country, as we’re going to see this weekend. From the Football League all the way up to the Premier League there are a variety of clubs to sample over the course of the next few days, with one of the only all-Premier League clashes coming at Selhurst Park.

Crystal Palace will host Tottenham Hotspur in a game that many see as being quite up for grabs. These two London-based clubs don’t have any huge dislike for one another, mainly because they’re in very different positions in the table, but that doesn’t mean the fire won’t burn bright on the night. We’re expecting some fireworks and even that could be an understatement given some of the players that’ll be out there tomorrow. Still, all we can really hope for above all of that is a bit of entertainment, which these two sides haven’t been in short supply of since the campaign began.

Crystal Palace have been able to fight their way back from the brink following a poor start to the season, and now, they seem to have picked up a reputation for themselves as a team that are more than capable of beating anyone on their day. Of course, they also have their down moments, but a few key acquisitions could really elevate Roy Hodgson’s side to the next level in a big way. They may be a long way off that goal in the eyes of many, but who knows what a good cup run could do for them.

Tottenham appear to be battling against a number of factors at this stage of the season including, but not limited to, a stadium move, rumours surrounding the future of their manager, injuries to key stars and much more. They’ve certainly faced adversity in the past but it feels as if there’s a perfect storm waiting right around the next corner, and if they aren’t able to overcome the challenge of the Eagles, then serious questions will start to be raised. Still, they’re a team full of quality, which is why many will continue to favour them heading into this tie.

Palace’s inconsistency has been painfully evident throughout the course of their last six games, kicking things off with a 0-0 draw against Cardiff City. They then lost 1-0 to Chelsea in a pretty competitive game, before securing an impressive 2-0 win over high flying Wolverhampton Wanderers. They edged past Grimsby Town in the FA Cup, before falling short against Watford in the Premier League. Up next, in their latest outing, was a 4-3 loss to Liverpool. Ironically enough, that was probably the most impressive game of them all given their ability to fight back and stay in the game against the league leaders for so long.

Tottenham’s last six game run also began against Cardiff, although they were actually able to secure a 3-0 win. They followed this up with a 7-0 triumph over Tranmere Rovers, before seeing off the challenge of Chelsea in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi final. They lost a narrow game against Manchester United which dealt their top four hopes a bit of a blow, but fortunately, they bounced back with a very narrow win over Fulham. Earlier in the week, though, they also suffered a fairly heartbreaking loss as Chelsea beat them on penalties in the second leg of their cup semi final.

Spurs have controlled this rivalry throughout the course of history, which won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. They lead 29-11 in the overall head to head standings with 13 draws, with their first meeting taking place way back in 1906. The two sides last faced off in November, with Spurs securing a 1-0 win. Recent history hasn’t been kind to Roy Hodgson’s men in this fixture at all, to be honest, with Tottenham winning the last five meetings. Palace’s last triumph came back in February 2016, when they won 1-0 in a tense FA Cup tie.

Following the signing of Lucas Perri many fans are wondering whether or not he’ll start in this one, however, some are expecting Hodgson to stick with Speroni in order for him to try and rectify the errors he made in Palace’s last game. Papa Souare is on the sidelines for the Eagles in this one, too, and interestingly enough, Palace may actually decide to rest some of their players for this encounter. Martin Kelly, who scored the winner in the FA Cup game between these teams in 2016, may start with Scott Dann also being tipped to appear in the starting XI.

Harry Kane is the biggest absence of them all for Spurs, but he isn’t the only one. Ben Davies and Dele Alli are also out, in addition to Son Heung-Min. The forward was knocked out of the Asian Cup with South Korea, but this game is too soon for him to return in. Wanyama is back in training, whereas Rose and Sissoko both have niggles and may not be fit enough to start. Even if they aren’t, though, you’d think that Tottenham have enough strength in depth within their ranks to feel confident enough about securing the victory at Selhurst Park.

Crystal Palace vs Tottenham Betting Prediction

It’s not exactly groundbreaking to suggest that Spurs should consider themselves the favourites here, but given that they’re coming off the back of a Carabao Cup exit, you have to wonder how that’ll impact their confidence. Sure, it may have no effect whatsoever, but we can see them being a little bit nervous to start in this one. Palace will probably start off slow too in order to not expose themselves to the counter attack, before coming alive as we reach the half time interval.

After the break we think Spurs will finally break the deadlock, but it certainly won’t come easy. They’ll end up hanging on for dear life for the rest of the game, failing to get a second goal of their own. They won’t earn a lot of plaudits for their performance here and that’s completely understandable, but sometimes, you don’t need to. As long as Tottenham can secure the win and progress into the next round, then most of their fans aren’t going to care about the performance given the circumstances. If they can just get over the finish line, then we’re confident in saying that’ll be good enough.