Having spent yesterday evening dwelling in the basement along with Wigan, we raise our sights tonight and turn attention to the battle for the top four places. Spurs make the trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in a fixture that will go a long way to deciding which of the teams enjoy Champions League football next term.
It’s a fascinating scenario: a Blues defence that has kept three clean sheets in four face up to Gareth Bale, a player who will eat resolute defending and wash it down a glass of hot steaming man marking. Tonight looks a mouth-watering midweek prospect.
Our Duguout Discussion is now open to welcome those who like some real-time chatter with their TV dinner.
The team news from the Bridge is predictable enough. Rafa Benitez is able to welcome back Eden Hazard after a calf injury kept him out of Sunday’s Old Trafford victory. Gary Cahill also returns to the defence, shifting David Luiz into midfield, while Fernando Torres continues his see-saw rotation with Demba Ba up front: Frank Lampard and Victor Moses also make way and join John Terry on the bench.
Andre Villas-Boas returns to face the Bridge faithful and brings in Scott Parker, Emmanuel Adebayor and Lewis Holtby into his starting lineup. Moussa Dembele misses out through injury, while both Jermain Defoe and Clint Dempsey are amongst the substitutes.
