There’s less than five miles between these sides as the crow flies – or about an hour on the tube for this 6pm kick-off.
But with all that jesting aside, what a refreshing tie this is. You’d have to go back to 2001 for their last clash, which saw Spurs run out 1-0 winners thanks to a 90th-minute winner from Gary Doherty.
Oh, what a simpler time that truly was. But now, Jose Mourinho is the Spurs boss, they’ve re-signed Gareth Bale and Leyton Orient drew 2-2 with Mansfield at the weekend. Contrasting fortunes, albeit I’m not sure Orient would swap Ross Embleton for Jose (only kidding).
Mourinho has already been quite vocal about the fixture congestion here, and even though his side put in an impressive performance at the weekend, it was largely down to the brilliance of two players – neither of whom you can expect to see in this outing.
Spurs have a very winnable tie against Newcastle this weekend, and an even more winnable match-up against Manchester United a few days later.
Expect this to be a thrown-together mix of academy graduates and fringe players.
Here’s your three best bets.
Erik Lamela to Score Anytime
There has never been a player so technically good that just lacks consistency to be a top talent as Erik Lamela.
And you know the strangest thing about Lamela? He’s been at Spurs for EIGHT years!
In that time, he’s averaged about 18 games a season in all competitions, and just two goals per campaign. However, these are the kinds of games where poor Erik pads those stats to, presumably, see him evade the transfer list every season.
Either that, or the demand for high-earners who score exclusively away to Leyton Orient on Tuesday evenings isn’t that high, but whatever.
Both Teams to Score – No
As a comparison point, Harrogate Town, who we saw get absolutely tickled by West Brom, have scored twice as many goals as Orient this year.
This is no mid-week slump or potential banana skin – let’s make this very clear. The gulf between these two is bigger than the normal, boring, exhausted cliché lets you think.
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‘Spurs v Football League side’ doesn’t actually do anything for your betting insight here and the Os finishing 17th in League Two last season is probably a fair reflection of just where they are right now.
The idea that Spurs could concede, let alone slip up, is out of the question.
Half-Time/Full-Time – Spurs/Spurs
Another very generous market that you simply can’t ignore.
Perhaps if Spurs were at home, they might fall into a false sense of security and just go through the motions.
But, the modest surroundings in East London will absolutely make them realise they have a job to do, and the sooner they manage it, the longer they can spend floating around the pitch thinking of what they’ll watch on Netflix when they get home.
I hope they’re not getting the tube.
* Prices on our snazzy new bet widget are bang up to date.