Writing in his predictions column for BBC Sport, Chris Sutton has been looking ahead to this weekend’s FA Cup fixtures.
The FA Cup third round is this weekend, and, as ever, the pundits are on the lookout for any potential giant killings.
There is one fixture that jumps out from the list as a potential giant killing, and that’s Tottenham Hotspur vs Portsmouth.
Spurs are in torrid form as of late, while Portsmouth are under a caretaker manager.
This has the recipe for an upset, but Sutton thinks that Spurs can win comfortably against Pompey if Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min are picked in the starting XI.
Sutton shares Spurs’ route to victory
The pundit gave his view of this match.
“If Tottenham boss Antonio Conte picks Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min then they will beat Portsmouth comfortably,” Sutton wrote.
“If Conte rotates his squad, then Pompey obviously have more of a chance, but they have just sacked their manager after a bad run of results and they are not in the sort of form that suggests they can go to Spurs and spring a surprise.”
Still favourites
Of course, Spurs will have a greater chance of winning if they pick their two best players here, but even if they leave both Kane and Son on the bench they should still be favourites.
With all due respect to Portsmouth, they’re nowhere near the level of Spurs second-stringers and if Kane and Son are rested, Spurs’ second-choice attacking line-up should be able to deal with Portsmouth with relative ease.
Anything can happen in the FA Cup, but one has to imagine that Spurs will be advancing to the fourth round.
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