Tottenham Hotspur travel to Deepdale tomorrow evening to take on Preston North End in the fourth round of the FA Cup in a match live on BBC for those not making the trip to Lancashire, with the game kicking off at 6 PM BST. Read some of assistant manager Cristian Stellini’s comments ahead of the match here, the pick of the stats going into the match here, or have your say on the match on the Vital Spurs fan forum here.
While much of the Spurs-centred pre-match talk will obviously be orientated around Harry Kane, who will eclipse Jimmy Greaves as the club’s record goalscorer with a single goal at Deepdale, there is a doubt whether he will start or be involved due to the striker missing most of this week’s training with an illness.
Cristian Stellini was keen to stress that while Kane had declared his availability in his pre-match press conference, that the staff would be cautious in their utilisation of the player for fear of doing further damage to him.
Notwithstanding that, the Italian stressed that Spurs would not make changes just for the sake of it, telling Football.London:
“No, we think that every game we prepare, every game we are preparing to play we pick the best team to try to win. We can do a change, we are here enough time to have players ready to play one game and some changes where nothing happens (to the level) with some changes.
The only player we can realise that is not ready like the others is Arnaut [Danjuma] because he is a new player. We are happy but we need to give him time to understand everything.”
Spurs fans may therefore have to wait to see the new man in action, but the match is a great chance for the likes of Richarlison and Heung-min Son to up their confidence with a goal while all the talk is on Danjuma’s possible debut or Kane breaking the club goalscoring record.
If we are to see changes, it is likely to be at the back, where Fraser Forster may retain his place in goal as he has done throughout each of Spurs’ cup games to good effect this season, and a rotation at wing-back, giving Perisic the pensioner a break and Matt Doherty a run-out.
Preston themselves are no soft touch, so Conte and Stellini will obviously be wary of making too many changes. Ryan Lowe’s side are a whisker away from the Championship play-off spots, and currently lie in 11th and are 2 points off the coveted 6th spot.
In front of what will likely be a sell-out crowd full of boisterous Lancashire locals, this will be a tough encounter, but one that Spurs should overcome with the right attitude.