Crystal Palace v Spurs, Sunday 4pm BTTS @ 4/5
Spurs could be feeling very ‘Sarri’ for themselves after Thursday night’s defeat on penalties to Chelsea, but they’ll have to pick themselves up sharpish.
Sure, Mauricio Pochettino can claim the Carabao Cup was never a priority, but with Harry Kane and Dele Alli on the injured list, things aren’t going to get any easier for Spurs to keep up a Prem top-four and Champions League fight either.
How important is the FA Cup to the faithful in Sunday’s cross London trip to Palace?
Roy Hodgson’s side are making a habit of sticking it up to the big boys with that 3-2 win at Manchester moneybags denting the Cityzens hopes of retaining the Premier League crown. And Palace very nearly balanced the books by doing the same to Liverpool in a 4-3 defeat at the weekend.
Can they do the same to injury-hit Spurs?
They haven’t been able to in their last five Premier League games as Tottenham have run out 1-0 winners every time. However, Palace did beat Tottenham 1-0 the last time the sides met in the FA Cup, where a Martin Kelly strike sent the Eagles soaring in February 2016.
A feature of all Spurs’ five wins was that those solitary goals came in the second half. If you fancy history repeating itself, it’s 7/4 that Spurs win the second half on Sunday.
We can’t see either side being happy with a 0-0 draw and a replay, so we’re going for both teams to score at 4/5 and leave the result to whoever wants it more.
Chelsea v Sheff Wednesday Sunday 6pm, Chelsea -2 @ 7/4
Steve Bruce won’t be leading the Owls out until February 01 due to family commitments, but maybe that’s not a bad thing as Chelsea could have their mojo back.
They were impressive in beating Spurs on Thursday – despite having to cling on at the end to avoid going out on away goals, but shouldn’t have much trouble dismissing the Championship’s Sheffield Wednesday.
The Owls have only lost one of their last five games – a 3-0 defeat away to Hull – but this is different gravy.
While Gonzalo Higuain has £325,000 reasons per week not to be too arsed whether they win the FA Cup or not – he won’t want his potential debut start ruined by an outfit from the lower leagues.
There’s no real kudos in backing the Blues at 1/6 in the win-draw-win market, so we’ll look to Mr Handicap to try and shift the odds a little more in our favour.
Even at -1 on the handicap you’re still looking at Chelsea being odds on at 8/13.
But it’s Sunday night, we’re into the last week of January, so we’ll push the boat out for the Argentine striker’s arrival.
Chelsea to win by three goals (-2 on the handicap) at 7/4 is where we’re at.
*Prices correct at time of posting
Both teams to score in C Palace v Spurs & Chelsea to win -2 on the handicap is a 7/2 double approx.
Up for the Cup? All the latest football odds are on PaddyPower.com