Tottenham Hotspur head to Crystal Palace on Sunday for a FA Cup clash that the bookies have surprisingly regarded to be quite evenly matched. This London derby is not a pick’em per say, but it’s not very far off from that status either. When you look at how Spurs are currently 11 places ahead of Palace in the Premier League table, it’s bit surprising.
Or maybe not when you consider how Tottenham are without their two best players right now, and some other key players on top of that. Mauricio Pochettino, the boss of the north London side, will have to kind of cobble together a sort of patch work first team lineup for the Sunday matinee affair.
Here’s our best guess as to what he might do with it.
The Bank Tottenham Hotspur Starting XI Prediction(4-3-3) at Crystal Palace (FA Cup 4th round)
Attack: Erik Lamela, Fernando Llorente, Lucas Moura
Midfield: Harry Winks, Eric Dier, Christian Eriksen
Defense: Davinson Sanchez, Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld, Kieran Trippier
Goalkeeper: Paulo Gazzaniga
Tottenham Hotspur at Crystal Palace FA Cup 4th Round FYIs
Kickoff: Sunday, January 27, 4pm local, Selhurst Park
Injury Report for both teams: go to this link
Odds via Odds Checker: Crystal Palace win 9/5, Draw 12/15, Tottenham Hotspur win 17/10
Tottenham Hotspur to win the whole tournament 17/2
Prediction: Crystal Palace 2, Tottenham Hotspur 1
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.