Well, this could be bad. After crashing out of the League Cup in their first match earlier in the season, Aston Villa have the tough task of traveling to White Hart Lane for their first FA Cup match of the season. And the Tottenham Hotspur side that they’ll “get” to face have been playing some superb football this year. To wit:
- In their 20 Premier League matches, they’ve gotten points in 18 of them.
- Earlier this week they beat comfortable league-leaders Chelsea 2-0.
- Harry Kane and Dele Alli have 10 goals each.
- Unless you add in Champions League play, in which case the tallies are 12 and 11, respectively.
- Spurs are averaging 1.95 goals for and .7 goals against per match. (Compare to Villa’s 1.04 and .96)
And we have to consider the fact that this is a cup match, and Aston Villa are not good in cup play. In other words, this is a match that Villa probably lose.
But we can watch it! And hope for the best. Because if there is one thing that we can definitely say this year it’s that Aston Villa have not entirely deprived us of hope. And that’s something!
Location: White Hart Lane, London, England
Kick-off time: 4 PM GMT, 11 AM Eastern, 8 AM Pacific
Available TV: BBC One (UK), Fox Sports 1 (US), Fox Deportes (US)
Available streaming: Fox Sports GO (US), Fox Soccer 2GO (US)
Available radio: BBC Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, AVTV (If audio doesn’t work, try using Safari)
SB Nation Opposition Blog: Cartilage Free Captain
Other listings are available from livesoccertv.com.
Aston Villa squad
The teams are in!
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) January 8, 2017
Here’s our starting XI for #TOTAVL…#EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/yk4249CecI
#AVFC subs v @SpursOfficial: Gollini, Elphick, Westwood, Cissokho, Green, Davis, McCormack. #TOTAVL
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) January 8, 2017
Tottenham squad
#THFC: Vorm, Trippier, Carter-Vickers, Alderweireld, Wimmer, Davies, Dier (C), Winks, Sissoko, Son, Janssen. #COYS pic.twitter.com/EyTJ7hkb5s
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 8, 2017
Subs: Pau Lopez, Walker-Peters, Vertonghen, Wanyama, Dele, Onomah, Nkoudou. #COYS
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 8, 2017