Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur meet at Villa Park in the fourth round of the FA Cup with both teams looking to bounce back from recent setbacks. Villa recently suffered a 2-0 defeat at Wolves last week dropping them to eight on the table. Tottenham on the other hand must put their Anfield disaster behind them as they suffered a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool in the Carabao cup.
Unai Emery’s side have gotten a full week to recover from their latest Premier League loss and will be eager to maintain their strong home form. Villa are unbeaten in their last 10 games at Villa Park in all competitions, although they have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last six games on home ground. The Lions secured their place in this round of the FA Cup with a 2-1 comeback win over West Ham but consistency has been an issue. Since that victory they have won just one of their last five matches but their 4-2 triumph over Celtic ensured progression in the Champions League.
Spurs have only just recently ended a four match losing streak in the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Brentford but their Conference League campaign has gone very well, sitting fourth. They did need extra time to win against non league Tamworth in a 3-0 victory highlighting their current struggles. But, despite their inconsistent form Tottenham have won four of their last five FA Cup fourth round ties. However, Villa have dominated this fixture throughout 2023 winning three straight meetings before Spurs responded by scoring four goals in each of their last two encounters.
Spurs are without Richarlison after picking up a calf injury against Liverpool. He joins the very long list of absentees including Guglielmo Vicario, Radu Dragusin, Wilson Odobert, Dominic Solanke, James Maddison, Micky van de Ven, Destiny Udogie, Cristian Romero, Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson.
Villa may hand a debut to new loan signing Marcus Rashford, but he is likely to start on the bench. Marco Asensio is in contention for a start as Ollie Watkins, Pau Torres, Matty Cash, Tyrone Mings and Ross Barkley remain sidelined.
Aston Villa possible lineup: Olsen; Garcia, Kamara, Konsa, Maatsen; Tielemans, Onana; Rogers, McGinn, Ramsey; Malen
Tottenham Hotspur possible lineup: Kinsky; Porro, Danso, Davies, Spence; Bissouma, Bentancur, Bergvall; Kulusevski, Tel, Son
