Tottenham Hotuspur vs Middlesbrough 15/01/20

15 January 2020

After being held to a 1-1 draw in the first leg, Tottenham Hotspur will be looking to kick Middlesbrough out of the FA Cup when the two sides lock horns third-round replay at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this midweek.

Tottenham come into this encounter after suffering a disappointing 1-0 home loss to Liverpool, stretching their winless run in all competitions to four straight games (D2, L2). While both of Spurs’ draws during the four-game sequence saw them concede the opener and bounce back beyond the hour mark, both of their defeats in that period have arrived via the identical 1-0 scoreline. Notably, seven of Tottenham’s 11 competitive results (win/loss) since Jose Mourinho’s arrival have come via a single-goal margin, while seven witnessed the winners on the day fail to keep a clean sheet too. Also, none of their seven home games under Mourinho has ended in a stalemate (W4, L2), with half of those fixtures (3) producing over 4.5 goals.

Meanwhile, Middlesbrough head to London on a run of six consecutive games without a loss (W4, D2), hopeful they can post their first competitive away triumph over Tottenham since 2002. In fact, Smoggies have sustained six defeats in their previous nine competitive trips to Tottenham (D3), drawing a blank on six of those occasions. And, things are unlikely to improve now, as Jonathan Woodgate’s men have failed to impress away from home this season, although they’ve run out 2-0 winners in both of their last competitive road trips. Before those two successes, Middlesbrough have not picked up a single away triumph in 11 successive road games (D5, L6), with 54% of those fixtures featuring three or more goals.