Everything you need to know ahead of Sunday's fourth round tie in the FA Cup. Aston Villa take on Tottenham Hotspur at Villa Park in the fourth round of the FA Cup today, with the visitors hoping to bounce back from an embarrassing defeat last time out. Spurs were soundly beaten by Liverpool in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final in midweek, and were widely criticised for the performance in the 4-0 loss.
The pressure continues to mount on Ange Postecoglou, with Spurs also languishing in 14th in the Premier League, and today they face a Villa side who themselves had had mixed results in recent weeks. Unai Emery’s side lost 2-0 to local rivals Wolves last weekend, but their season is far from over both domestically and in Europe, having booked an automatic place in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the match:. The FA Cup fixture will kick off at 5.45pm GMT on Sunday 9 February at Villa Park in Birmingham. This fixture will be shown free-to-air on BBC One in the UK, with subscribers also able to watch online via BBC iPlayer. Coverage begins at 5.20pm. Speaking to the media in the lead-up to the game, Emery confirmed that Matty Cash, Pau Torres, Ross Barkley, Tyrone Mings and Ollie Watkins will all miss the game, with the latter having come off at half-time during the defeat to Wolves.
Axel Disasi is cup-tied, having already appeared for chelsea earlier in the season, though new signing Marcus Rashford could make his debut, as could fellow January addition Marco Asensio. In his own press conference, Postecoglou said that no players will be returning to the squad ahead of the match, with Dominic Solanke, Cristian Romero, James Maddison, Destiny Udogie, Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson all out for the long-term. In addition, it was recently confirmed that Radu Dragusin has suffered an ACL injury.
In addition, Richarlison will likely miss the matcha after coming off injured against Liverpool, though the layoff for the calf injury is not yet clear. Micky van de Ven will also likely be unavailable for selection. Aston Villa XI: Martinez; Garcia, Konsa, Kamara, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; Rogers, McGinn, Ramsey; Rashford. Tottenham XI: Kinsky; Porro, Danso, Davies, Spence; Bissouma, Bentancur, Sarr; Kulusevski, Richarlison, Son.
