Tottenham are looking to cement themselves in the last eight of the FA Cup when they travel to Sheffield United. Without Antonio Conte it will once more be down to assistant manager Cristian Stellini to lead the side from the dugout but that has been no problem so far.
Stellini has a 100% winning record when deputising from Conte, extending beyond his run at Spurs to time at Inter Milan too. It is also down to the assistant to continue what is a largely remarkable FA Cup record for Conte as a manager. In his time as manager he has reached two out of three finals, winning one, losing one and only losing one game before reaching a final.
That game was last season in a match that somewhat mirrors Tottenham's challenge on Wednesday night. Last season they fell to defeat against Championship opponents playing in red and white in an away draw. In the fifth round this year they also play away to a Championship club donning red and white.
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With a true battle for the top four and a Champions League clash against AC Milan next week it is a big period for Spurs and they will be hoping to deal with a plague of injuries in their spine to get through it. In recent weeks they have lost two starting stars as well as some key squad players.
It served them well against Chelsea at the weekend but Stellini has already confirmed that there is no boost as they head to Bramall Lane. Speaking ahead of the game, Stellini said: "No, no fresh injuries. All the players are good. It's normal after two days that there's players who have to recover more. The squad is the same."
This means that Spurs will still be without club captain Hugo Lloris - though this is no surpirse given his knee injury picked up last month - as well as Rodrigo Bentancur. Again, being without the Uruguayan midfielder is nothing new after he was ruled out for months.
It hasn't stopped Oliver Skipp and Pape Matar Sarr from impressing in their absence but Yves Bissouma's own struggle for fitness has put extra strain on the ever-impressive Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg. That is not the extent to the injuries though, with Spurs also missing Ryan Sessegnon for the past three matches.
"We have a problem with [Ryan] Sessegnon which was clear from the last game that Sessegnon was not in the squad," the Italian said last week. "Now at the moment he is not available and not any news."
As for Bissouma, Stellini has nothing new to go off but revealed the extent of his problems last month, saying, "We have to wait with Bissouma because it's a stress fracture that came from overload so he needs time. We are so sad for Biss because now without Rodrigo, he could be an important player but in football this happens."
There was a boost on Sunday though with Richarlison starting for the second time in a row. He came in for Son Heung-Min who has not been completely fit recently. There remain question marks over his readiness to play. "Richarlison had recovered 100 per cent, Son had some problem that he bring with him for a bit of time," Stellini explained.
"Sometimes player that has a problem needs time to recover and to be well prepared for the next period. In the next period we have four games in ten days, every game will be tough. We need every player 100 per cent. If we have one player 100 per cent and another one 70 per cent, we have to choose the 100 per cent player.”
The game against Sheffield United could be the perfect chance to get Son's game time built up again and hopefully bring with it an upturn in form too. That will have to wait though with no fresh update given on the winger.
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