FA Cup: Tottenham vs Coventry City

Tottenham - Coventry Preview: Spurs reunited with old FA Cup foe

Spurs will look to kick off their campaign in style after suffering semi-final disappointment last season, against a League One team that defeated them in the 1987 final
Andre Villas-Boas could give Scott Brave Scotty Parker his first start since coming back from injury, but the FA Cup clash might come too soon for Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who is lacking match fitness.

Tottenham's big stars may be rested, giving the likes of Brave Scotty Parker, Andros Townsend, Tom Huddlestone and Yago Falque a chance to impress.

Brad Friedel could be set to make his return to the Tottenham line-up, making his first start since signing a new contract at the club, keeping him at White Hart Lane until 2014.

The Sky Blues come into the game following their first defeat in 10 games, losing 1-0 on New Year's Day to Shrewsbury and will undoubtedly be going all-out against Tottenham, making amends for last year's exit in the third round of the cup.

Despite starting 2013 with a defeat, it is unlikely Mark Robins will make any changes to the line-up, with his team keeping an impressive eight clean sheets so far this season.

--------------Frediel---------------
--Walker--Gallas--Caulker--Naughton
---------Huddleston---Brave Scotty Parker-------
--Falque----Sigurdsson-----Townsend
---------------Adebayor------------

I think i read somewhere Dempsey, Bale and Scotty were all going to start, with BAE to at least make the bench (About bloody time!!). I would be surprised if Bale doesnt start, AVB likes fielding strong teams when possible and Bale did have last game off

So i think we will see something similar to;

----------Freidel---------
Naughton-Gallas-Caulker-BAE
---Huddlestone/Carrol-Brave Scotty Parker
Siggy-Demps-Bale
Ade

Tottenham Friedel; Naughton, Caulker, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto; Huddlestone, Brave Scotty Parker; Sigurdsson, Dempsey, Bale; Adebayor. Subs: Lloris, Vertonghen, Lennon, Defoe, Dembele, Townsend, Carroll.

BAE is in the starting line-up!

Very close from Nh01, I think the only player you got wrong was Gallas instead of Dawson. AVB is completely ignoring Gallas now and he's better off for it

Tottenham are up 1-0 already through a Dempsey goal off a Bale flick on apparently.

The game isn't being televised

I have a soccer app that gives me live broadcasts of all the games. It's called fotmob, typically gives me free radio broadcasts of every game that has a radio broadcast.

No radio broadcast either, but nice to see Dempsey isn't letting the groin slow down him finally finding his form for Spurs. Big things in the second half of the season boys.

Yeah, I don't see Dempsey worried about Holtby, the dude just links up so well with everyone. Throw on another assist for the season and another goal for Bale.

That didn't take long, now another goal for Dempsey and a second assist for Bale. Dempsey on that hat trick form. Game over before half. If he gets the third before half let him rest that groin.

Apparently he had 2 goal-bound efforts blocked by Adebayor and a Coventry player, respectively.

He's killing these guys Now it's Coventry but that's still good and should do wonders for his confidence.

A game that we were always going to win. Stronger lineup than I expected... Dempsey should not go tbh.... His link up play with every member of the team is such a joy to watch!

This is why I think his position is safe even with Holtby, while Holtby holds more overall talent/potential...you cannot under value the chemistry Dempsey has with the key pieces of this team as it is currently constructed.

Further, I still think the first half of the season was a wash given how late he came into the side. Had he been signed at the beginning of the Summer window I would of expected more, but for me this is the real start to his season. He's arguably been the best play on the pitch for Spurs in the last 5 games he's played in, for me he's on par with Vertoghen and Dembele in terms of importance to this team. Bale is obviously well above everyone, but Dempsey is right there behind him in the squad.

I think I have to disagree with you there. Dempsey has no doubt been great in the past 2 months after his awful start, and you're right when you say that this is more the beginning of his season than earlier, but I don't think he's one of our most important players, or he would start more. I mean he does get a look in whenever we play a 4-2-3-1, but when we play a 4-4-2, he's not getting that look in until later as a sub. I think if he was as important to the squad as Verts, Dembele, and Bale, he would require a start, and get a start over say, Lennon.

I think he's been great but I want to wait a bit longer and see if he can sustain this form (I've no doubt he can, though), and how greatly it affects the team to judge how important he is. I mean we saw what happened when Dembele was injured, and I can only fear what our backline will look like without Vertonghen, who has been key in not only filling in several positions, but doing well in each and being a commanding figure at the back. Bale is important for obvious reasons, but I don't see him as crucial as Dembele actually.

I guess...I find Bale more replaceable that Dembele. They're both very important, but we can cope without Bale. Without Dembele we looked absolutely awful- although I'd like to see how we cope without him now that we've settled our team a bit more.

That being said, seeing him succeed with Spurs is a joy for me as an American and a Dempsey fan (I've got his USA #8 jersey )

It's a shame this game wasn't televised, I wanted to see BAE in action

Dempsey has been available to start 16 games in the Premier League for Tottenham. Of those, he has started 12 of them. Over that span Tottenham had 8 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw (of those 3 losses, Tottenham were ahead or tied when he was subbed off the field).

In the 4 starts Dempsey was available and had to come off the bench, Spurs had 2 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw. I would note that of the 4 times he came off the bench, the first time was when he was first selected for the squad in early September after the late signing so he wasn't going to start; the other was last week when he came back from the groin injury so he obviously wasn't going to start then either.

So in reality, he has only been left out of the starting XI twice.

I would also say I am jealous, I don't yet have a Dempsey jersey, though I will be getting the blue one along with either a Dembele or Vertoghen white jersey.

Admittedly, I pretty much just buy jerseys that I like even if I don't support that particular team.

It's just that early on, there were plenty of games that we won (a lot of times through some grit and steel defending at the end) that Dempsey had played in where- and I say this lightly due to him coming in later in the season- he was simply put pretty awful. He did put in hard work but not much else than that. It was very frustrating for me and a lot of fans. Thankfully AVB kept the faith and it's been repaid, and he looks a different man. To me, if he was as important as say, Dembele or Vertonghen, those games probably wouldn't have been won. As important as he is now, I hate to say that he is also replaceable. Now when you see us without Dembele compared to without Dempsey, I think it's clear who is more important.

I'm of the opinion that Dembele is both our best and most important player. I've been absolutely AMAZED with the guy this year, and I think he's one of the transfers of the summer.

Personally I can't buy a jersey unless I support the team lol. My next jersey will probably be a Dembele Spurs jersey. I'm the biggest Dembele fan in this forum now since he joined haha

That being said- Dempsey for 7 million pounds (I think it was) was an absolute bargain as well.

God damn did we have a good summer transfer window or what? The only player that looks like he may not have been worth it is Gylfi and he's been playing well recently and he's young as well. If not to contribute much to Spurs, we'll be able to recoup most of what we paid for him if we do sell him IMO.

For those that haven't seen the goals

Dempsey's second goal. What a header

Worst highlights, go for 30 seconds

Meh, didn't search too long for them and I just wanted to see the goals

Idk how many extended highlights you will find of a non televised game.