Birmingham City FC stadium: St Andrews

This fixture marks the meeting of two sides that have had very pleasing weeks. Tottenham’s win over Liverpool looked in major doubt when Fernando Torres had two golden opportunities to double the Red’s early advantage at White Hart Lane last Sunday. However, Harry Redknapp’s men have become real comeback specialists this season, and Aaron Lennon’s late winner was the right reward for an enterprising second half display.

Birmingham have yet to properly convince this year, however they paired a solid draw with Fulham last weekend with a win over bitter local rivals Aston Villa in the Carling Cup. Results in cup competitions always build momentum, and I would argue this offsets the downside of extra strain being placed on players at this time of the season.

That being said, Tottenham will be a very tricky proposition. Without Rafael Van der Vaart, Spurs have occasionally lacked some creative nous. However, I fancy they will have enough to go to St Andrews and win- a pre-requisite if the white half of North London are to challenge for the title this year.

Prediction: 1-2

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