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2 min: Xavi Simons lands very awkwardly after going up for a header but he’s OK to continue.
1 min: Malen is almost in within 40 seconds after Rogers hoiks the ball over the Spurs backline. A better touch and there might have been some problems there.
Peep! Of…
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2 min: Xavi Simons lands very awkwardly after going up for a header but he’s OK to continue.
1 min: Malen is almost in within 40 seconds after Rogers hoiks the ball over the Spurs backline. A better touch and there might have been some problems there.
Peep! Off we go then. Spurs get things under way.
**Before we kick-off the players, fans and a throng of Spurs legends on the touchline observe a minute’s applause for Martin Chivers and Terry Yorath. **
**Out come the players. **It’s a chilly night in north London but dry.
Click-clack, click-clack … the players are in the tunnel.
The floodlights are off at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the pre-game lightshow is under way. It sounds a bit naff, doesn’t it, but in my experience it’s actually pretty impressive.
Elsewhere on the site, Nigeria are cruising towards the Afcon semi finals:
While Newcastle and Bournemouth are cruising towards penalties …
It’s of course been an emotional week for Spurs following the death of Martin Chivers – a League Cup and Uefa Cup winner with the club and a bonafide legend.
So Spurs make five changes to the team that lost 3-2 to Bournemouth last time out, while Villa make six changes to the XI to the side that drew 0-0 at Palace. I would say those are both strong squads, though – no sense of either club taking the competition likely.
The lineups
Tottenham: Vicario; Danso, Palhinha, Simons, Richarlison, Tel, Gray, Porro, Odobert, Davies, Van de Ven. Subs: Kinsky, Dragusin, Udogie, Solanke, Spence, Kolo Muani, Scarlett, Byfield, Williams-Barnett
Aston Villa: Bizot; Cash, Konsa, Pau, Maatsen, Bogarde, Kamara, McGinn, Rogers, Buendia, Malen. Subs: Wright, Lindelof, Mings, Tielemans, Watkins, Digne, Garcia, Sancho, Hemmings.
Preamble
Well, it has been a terrific day in the FA Cup so far, with Macclesfield’s history-making victory over Crystal Palace the undoubted highlight. There won’t quite be that kind of magic in north London this evening but rather an intriguing meeting of a couple of Premier League big beasts.
Tottenham and Thomas Frank have been having a miserable time of it in the Premier League, where they have won just twice since October – a run stretching back 12 matches. Aston Villa, meanwhile, have been in sensational form, a return to the Champions League is basically nailed on and the only concern of note is keeping hold of Unai Emery.
But in the FA Cup of late the form suggests a different story. Villa have tended towards feast or famine – in the nine years between reaching the final in 2015 and the semis last year there was a run of seven successive third-round exits sandwiched between two fourth-round defeats. Spurs have been remarkably consistent – they have been knocked out in the third round only once since 2005-06, a pretty decent two-decade run.
It all could/should make for something quite entertaining. Kick-off is at 5.45pm GMT.