FA Cup 4th Round, Saturday 06:00pm
Preston might be forgiven for wanting this fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Forgetting the financial side of things, the Championship side have been better away from home this season.
Just three home wins have been chalked up by Ryan Lowe’s men after a start to the season which saw them score just once in their first six league games.
They sit in mid-table in the second tier, but have picked up a league-topping 27 points on the road, as opposed to 13 at Deepdale.
Lowe’s men won away at Birmingham last time out and earlier in the season ran Wolves close in 2-1 defeat in the League Cup at Molineux.
They will be without loanee Troy Parrott for this fixture, with the forward unavailable against his parent club.
New signing Liam Delap is also unable to feature, having represented Stoke in their third-round victory over Hartlepool.
Spurs are expected to go with a strong line-up as they have over a week until their next assignment against Manchester City.
Harry Kane played in the previous round against Portsmouth and he will likely lead the line after scoring the winner at Fulham on Monday night.
The return of Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski has lifted Antonio Conte’s men and new arrival Arnaut Danjuma could get a run-out.
Spurs did get rolled over in the EFL Cup at Forest earlier in the season, and Conte will be eager to make sure that does not happen again.
Preston are not accustomed to keeping clean sheets at home and Spurs should have enough quality to make it a comfortable evening in Lancashire.
Key stats
- Tottenham won 5-1 at Preston in the League Cup in 2009
- When Preston North End lead 1-0 at home they win in 75% of their matches
- When Tottenham lead 0-1 away they win in 76% of their matches
- Preston have the third worst home record in the Championship
- Tottenham have lost five of their last 10 games in all competitions
