Defeat is not an option

Before the first game with Chelsea I for one held little hope of Spurs progressing. We were playing away at the Champions, they were desperately seeking silverware to keep their manager in a job and in fairness we had a very poor record against them in recent times.

I wasn't able to watch the match myself as I was in Italy with my other half (a Chelsea season ticket holder no less!) and so had to rely on the heart-breaking news being fed to me via text message.

My outlook for the tie has changed completely since then. The so near yet so far outcome in the first match has made me believe, given everyone a taste of the glory and ultimately made defeat in tonight's game unthinkable. Matches against Chelsea are second only to Arsenal in terms of intensity and atmosphere and the game at White Hart Lane will be a blinder in those respects, there will be a huge amount of talent on the pitch for both sides and no little desire either. I think the fans could make the difference in this one.



Tottenham's season is shaping up to be a good one. We reached the semi-final of the League cup only to go out to a team we should have beaten and finished in the first leg. A poor run followed but the management have turned things around and shown us some brilliant attacking football while reaching the quarter finals of the two larger cups and being only 2 points shy of Bolton in fifth! If someboy had told me we would be facing that after the capitualtion against Newcastle I might have laughed. I said at the start of the season qualifying for European football again is a priority and we look set to do so. Even if the unthinkable should happen and we lose to the favourites in both cup competitions then we will have done well and will have witnessed key cup matches with Arsenal, Chelsea and Sevilla and White Hart Lane......massive progress on last year.

My team for tonight:

Robinson

Chimbonda----Rocha----Dawson----Lee

Malbranque----Jenas----Zokora----Lennon

Keane----Berbatov