:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62878687/1079388292.jpg.0.jpg)
Three of Tottenham Hotspurs much-vaunted attacking quartet, Kane, Son, Dele, and Eriksen — ‘DESK’ as our friends at Cartilage Free Captain call them — are set to miss the second leg of the League Cup semifinal, after Dele Alli picked up a hamstring injury in Sunday’s 2-1 win over Fulham. Dele, who has 6 goals in 7 career games against Chelsea, joins Harry Kane (ankle injury) and Son Heung-Min (international duty) in having to miss Thursday’s game.
Pochettino says Dele Alli will be assessed after suffering a hamstring injury during the late win at Fulham. "We feel so bad and sorry because he’s an important player for us and we’ll see, we need to assess him in the next few days and hope it’s not a big issue.” #COYS
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) January 20, 2019
Spurs will come to the Bridge carrying a 1-0 lead from the first leg, so technically they will not need to score to advance to the final, but they will have to hope that Chelsea’s offensive woes continue as well. In fairness, another goose-egg on the scoreboard for Chelsea cannot be ruled out — it’s happened four times in the past month, including twice at home.
Meanwhile, Spurs showed that they can still eke out wins without their big-hitters getting past relegation-bound Fulham while relying on the likes of Fernando Llorente, Erik Lamela, and Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, who replaced Dele on Sunday for his Premier League appearances of the season and provided the assist for Harry Wink’s last-minute winner.
While we would like to assume that Chelsea will prove tougher opposition than our West London brethren, given our level of performance on Saturday against another big rival, it’s not exactly a safe bet.