Tottenham Hotspur vs Portsmouth

Tottenham Hotspur join the FA Cup fray in the third round as they take on sub-par Portsmouth in a seemingly routine tie at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend.

Tottenham bounced back from a woeful 2-0 home loss to Aston Villa on New Year’s Day by thumping fellow London rivals Crystal Palace 4-0 on the road last time out. Having registered their first Premier League win since the World Cup (D1, L1 otherwise), ‘Spurs’ turn to the FA Cup, where they’ve not lost any of their last 43 matches in the competition against sides from outside England’s top-flight (W35, D8), a run spanning back to 1975! Since Portsmouth’s visit will be Tottenham’s final rehearsal ahead of their mouth-watering Premier League clash against Arsenal, Antonio Conte may include talismanic forwards Harry Kane and Son Heung-min into his starting XI. That would hand the Londoners’ bid to avenge a 2-0 H2H defeat in the 2010 FA Cup semifinals.

Before ousting Tottenham in their last FA Cup, third-tier Portsmouth had lost three straight H2Hs in the competition, and it’s hard to see them avoiding that fate here. Stuck in League One, approximately 50 positions behind Tottenham in the English footballing pyramid, Simon Bassey’s men must defy the odds to reach the next FA Cup round. Since outscoring MK Dons 3-2 in the last FA Cup tie, the visitors have only won once in their subsequent six domestic matches (D2, L3), conceding 2+ goals in three of their last four outings. What’s even more concerning is that they’ve lost four consecutive FA Cup encounters against Premier League clubs by an aggregate score of 9-1 since ousting Tottenham in 2010.