Tottenham v Chelsea: Carabao Cup fourth round – live!

And here’s the Spurs line-up. As trailed, it’s a stronger side than might have been anticipated:

Squad news should be incoming in a couple of minutes, but word on the street is that Tottenham are actually going to field a pretty strong team. We’ll find out just how strong in a short while.

Well, here’s another nice mess they’ve gotten themselves into. To recap: Spurs reached the fourth round of the Carabao Cup after Leyton Orient were thrown out of the competition for testing their players and finding that some of them were Covid-positive, and will now proceed to throw themselves out of the competition. Really, irrespective of the fairness of their punishment (for the record, not very), Orient should be playing this game, one which they might actually relish. Instead here Spurs are, stuck in a competition they can’t compete in, playing a game they don’t need, just 48 hours before Maccabi Haifa turn up for a probably-more-important-on-balance Europa League play-off, with an also-more-important-on-balance league match against Manchester United to follow at the weekend.

“I would like to fight for the Carabao but I don’t think I can,” scowled Jose Mourinho. “The group phase of the Europa League gives us a certain amount of money that for a club like us is very important. I think the EFL made a decision for us. They didn’t even create a problem – they made a decision. So that’s the decision.”

“I know they have a busy week this week but when I analyse Tottenham and know the squad they have, they have a fantastic squad,” says Frank Lampard. “So any squad Jose puts out can be very strong. I think we all know the Carabao Cup, for teams like ourselves and Tottenham that are challenging for the top four and Champions League, the Carabao Cup does have its place but we certainly respect it and every tournament we go in we try to win.”

This evening I fear will be one where neither side wins, but one fails to lose.