Tottenham Hotspur to face Portsmouth in FA Cup third round

Tottenham Hotspur have learnt their opponents for the third round in the FA Cup as the draw was made today with the North London club set to face League One club Portsmouth in the domestic cup.

Portsmouth sit seventh in the table in the third division of English football with 29 points to their name. Pompey have seven wins, eight draws and two defeats from 17 games so far.

The third-division club played Hereford in the first round of the FA Cup beating the lower-division club 3-1 to progress to the second round, where they managed to overcome MK Dons 3-2 to set a date with Tottenham.

Tottenham on the other hand will directly enter the third round of the competition and their clash against Portsmouth will be their first in this competition this season. With Antonio Conte’s men losing 2-0 to Nottingham Forest in the Carabao cup third round, this is the only domestic cup for them to compete in this season.

Last season, Spurs made it up until the fifth round before falling to a 1-0 defeat to Middlesborough. The Lilywhites have lifted the domestic cup eight times in their history but the last one came back in 1991.

There is no recent record to go by when it comes to head-to-head between the two teams with the last time these two teams faced each other coming way back in 2009/10 when Spurs eventually lost 2-0 to Portsmouth.

One interesting narrative to keep an eye out for when it comes to this game is whether our very own Dane Scarlett will be allowed to play the game against us. The talented teenage striker is on loan at Portsmouth for the season but it is a common practice for parent clubs to prevent their loanees from lining up against them.

The third-round clash will take place on the 7th of January, 2023 at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and there is a lot to look out for in this clash between Spurs and Pompey. This is arguably a very good draw for us.

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One look at Chelsea’s opponents, who face Manchester City, underlines how worse we could have had it. But at least the Blues will have their work cut out for them.

Facing a team from the lower divisions has its own challenges. They are motivated to play the game of their lives while the top teams can field a weakened team and risk losing the tie.