Tottenham are Still Alive in the FA Cup

An entertaining 2-2 draw sees Tottenham Hotspur remain alive in the FA Cup and will now force a third round replay in 10 days at the King Power Stadium.

With the FA Cup today and a mid-week Premier League match just three days later, against Leicester City once again, Mauricio Pochettino would make eight changes to his lineup. But with his substitutes and/or reserve players getting some playing time this season already, it hardly feels like massive changes to the starting eleven.

Let’s now take a look the Argentine manager’s rotated lineup prior to kick-off. Plus, pre-game notes to add some more context on the players who were selected.

Tottenham starting XI (4-2-3-1 formation):
Son Heung-min
Josh Onomah — Christian Eriksen — Nacer Chadli
Tom Carroll — Eric Dier
Danny Rose — Kevin Wimmer — Toby Alderweireld — Kieran Trippier
Michel Vorm

Spurs’ bench:
Hugo Lloris
Ben Davies
Dele Alli
Nabil Bentaleb
Erik Lamela
Harry Winks
Harry Kane

Pre-game notes:

Michel Vorm makes his 3rd start at goalkeeper this season
Kevin Wimmer makes his 4th start at center-back this season
Danny Rose earned his 14th start at left-back, and wore the captain’s armband today
Kieran Trippier earned his 9th start at right-back
Tom Carroll got his 7th start at central midfield this year
Josh Onomah got his 2nd start this year, but at left wing instead
Nacer Chadli made his 11th start this term but at right wing instead, first start since his injury
Son Heung-min gets another start at striker, his 4th this season (8 starts overall) and his first start since a 0-0 draw against Chelsea

To start the game off, Mauricio Pochettino would make eight changes and look to rest a majority of his key starters before facing Leicester again three days later. Once the game got underway, it wouldn’t take very long to start seeing Tottenham race out as early favorites.

Constant pressure from the left flank of Tottenham’s attack which was spearheaded by the captain for the day, left-back Danny Rose, helped spot a weakness in Leicester’s defense. Both Nathan Dyer and Ritchie De Laet couldn’t handle Rose’s pace throughout the opening minutes of the game.

Therefore, when Josh Onomah was dribbling up the pitch in the midfield — with Danny Rose as support by the touchline on the left — Onomah was given enough space as the Foxes’ defense were trying to stop any attacking threat that Danny Rose would bring once more. That brief window of time gave the 18-year-old Onomah a clear pathway to delieve a nice through ball to Nacer Chadli who rifled a shot towards goal.

Of course the shot, while on target, would be parried away by Kasper Schemichel only to land into the feet of Christian Eriksen who put the ball into the back of the net at the bottom left corner. And from that point on, by the eight minute, Tottenham took an early 1-0 lead and had full momentum.

The high-press and counterattacks since the opening minute was enough to put Leicester’s defense on it’s heels but only for a short while.

Just 11 minutse later, the Foxes would respond with an equalizer.

Leicester had won a corner and taking the kick would be Demarai Gray who was recently signed and making his first start. The 19-year-old joined the Foxes from Birmingham City after Leicester had triggered the winger’s £3.7 million release clause.

After delivering a great cross into the penalty box, Marcin Wasilewski who had just been booked in the 15th minute was on the receiving end of Gray’s cross and headed home a goal in the 19th minute.

With the score being one-all after nearly 20 minutes of football, the rest of the first half would see both teams trade possession and look to score the next goal of the game.

Tottenham as you may have noticed, had just over three-fourths of possession (76 percent) and yet they somehow were level with Leicester. A team that they were dominating early on in this game.

But perhaps this is just another illustration that possession doesn’t always mean teams win. Because after 45 minutes in this third round FA Cup tie, it was apparent that anything could happen from here on out and make for some entertaining football.

And coming out of the break, that “anything could happen” feeling did in fact just happen.

More from Hotspur HQ

Claudio Ranieri would bring on Shinji Okazaki for N’Golo Kante to start off the second half and his early substitution move paid dividends, as Leicester got their second goal of the game just three minutes into the second half at the 48th minute.

Surely by now, the momentum had swung back into the Foxes’ favor. A team that hadn’t scored in three consecutive games was finally back on the score board and they knew that one more goal would finish off Tottenham.

Except, while Leicester was getting early possession of the ball to start the second half, numbers-wise in terms of possession, the Foxes were slowly trying to even it out because Spurs had some more chances to equalize and level the game once again. Which is what Tottenham were able to do in the 89th minute, just before stoppage time would have been added.

A Nathan Dyer hand ball set doom upon Leicester and their supporters because they were mere minutes away from advancing into the fourth round of the FA Cup. To take the penalty kick was none other than Harry Kane who was already on the pitch since the 68th minute to help turn things around. Although his impact on the game was minimal but well-timed if anything. Kane’s third and final touch of the ball sent the game into level terms once more and finished 2-2 from the penalty spot.

Obviously, a draw was a well deserved result on Spurs’ end for fighting back and not giving up. But at the same time, both clubs are not going to be looking forward to a third round replay in 10 days time. An extra game to prepare when both teams’ form in the Premier League could be in jeopardy will take its toll very soon.

And now to finish up, here are the final stats and post-game notes below.

Full-time stats:
Tottenham Hotspur (Left) vs Leicester City (Right)
24 — Total shots — 10
8 — Attempts on target — 5
10 — Fouls commited — 7
1 — Yellow cards — 2
0 — Red cards — 0
0 — Offsides — 4
9 — Corners — 5
73% — Possession — 27%

Next: Spurs' Rumors: £5.2 million for a Center-back?

Post-game notes:

Harry Kane scored his 50th goal for Tottenham in 104 appearances (it’s his 14th goal this season and first FA Cup goal for Spurs)
Nabil Bentaleb made his 6th appearance of the season
Dele Alli made his 26th appearance of the season
Tottenham still have yet to concede more than two goals this season in all competitions
Spurs have conceded 26 goals in all competitions (16 in the Premier League)
Tottenham’s last loss in the FA Cup’s third round was against Leicester City in 2006