An injury crisis in attack for Tottenham has put their hopes of making the EFL Cup final in jeopardy despite holding a 1-0 aggregate advantage over fellow London outfit Chelsea going into their semi-final second leg on Thursday (kick-off 19::45 GMT).
Mauricio Pochettino’s men are without top scorer Harry Kane through injury and fellow forward Son Heung-Min who is on international football duty with South Korea at the Asian Cup. Dele Alli limped off in Spurs’ weekend win over Fulham further reducing the attacking options available.
Tottenham travel to Stamford Bridge where their hosts have lost just once in all competitions under Maurizio Sarri. He has bemoaned a lack of firepower at the Blues, but the loan signing of Gonzalo Higuain came too late for him to feature in this game.
Their strong home record suggests a Chelsea victory (in 90 minutes) with both teams scoring at an enhanced 5/2 with Winner is one wager that’s well worth considering. Higuain may be ineligible, but they still have Olivier Giroud, Eden Hazard, Pedro and Willian who have 29 goals between them in all competitions.
Tottenham still have other threats
It might seem like Spurs, who bring a decent away record into this cross-capital trip, are a one-man team at times given the prolific exploits of Kane in recent years. They do carry threat without him. however, and hope to have some other players back.
Brazil winger Lucas Moura could recover from a knee problem to feature, while the line is set to again be led by Fernando Llorente. The latter is a proven Premier League performer despite his advancing years after netting 15 goals for former club Swansea City.
Moura, meanwhile, joined Tottenham from PSG 12 months ago and is third in their goal charts behind absent pair Kane and Son with eight goals. Denmark playmaker Christian Eriksen and Argentine attacker Erik Lamela have also netted six apiece, so between it’s well within Spurs to also get a goal but go down in 90 minutes to the Blues.
Bet of the day: Chelsea to beat Tottenham (in 90 minutes) and both teams to score at 5/2 with Winner.
