(Football news) The treble champions started their pursuit of back-to-back titles with a 5-0 thrashing of Huddersfield Town in the third round, but the Lilywhites prevailed 1-0 over Burnley to secure a date with them.
The FA Cup is Tottenham’s best chance to break their ugly 16-year streak without winning a trophy, barring an unexpected Premier League title renaissance in the upcoming months. The capital giants have no European trophy to compete for, and their early exit from the EFL Cup represents the first blot on Ange Postecoglou’s notebook.
There was little to write home about for either Tottenham or Burnley during their third-round scrap earlier this month, that was until right-back Pedro Porro settled the tie with an outrageous second-half strike into the top corner of the net, extending Spurs’ winning streak at home to four matches in the process.
Nine days after an unconvincing success over the Clarets, Tottenham returned to the road for an intriguing Premier League showdown with City’s formerly noisy neighbours Manchester United, who took the lead twice through Rasmus Hojlund and Marcus Rashford only to be pegged back by Richarlison and Rodrigo Bentancur on both occasions.
Failure to overcome a Red Devils side enduring a prolonged plateau under Erik ten Hag may go down as an opportunity missed for the Lilywhites, who will have had 12 days to dwell on that 2-2 draw before resuming their quest for glory in the FA Cup, a competition in which they have not suffered a fourth-round exit since 2018-19.
Not since being stunted by AC Milan in March 2023 have Tottenham failed to score at home in any competition, but Friday’s match will mark their first FA Cup home tie against the reigning champions since 1952, when they were dispatched 3-0 by Newcastle United.
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