Tottenham begin their FA Cup campaign on Sunday afternoon with a third round tie away at Middlesbrough.
Perhaps looking quite a kind tie when the draw was made at the start of December given Boro's poor form, it is now anything but as Jonathan Woodgate's team go into the game on the back of four successive wins.
The Championship side have also only conceded just the one goal in their winning run and they will be out to make it as difficult as possible for their opponents.
The FA Cup tie on Teeside gives Jose Mourinho the perfect opportunity to rotate his squad after a busy festive period.
Son Heung-min returns from his three-match suspension, with Erik Lamela in contention to start from the off after coming off the bench in the previous two games after his two month layoff with a hamstring issue.
Michel Vorm could be handed a rare start in goal as Paulo Gazzaniga may be given a breather after deputising for Hugo Lloris since the start of October, while Kyle Walker-Peters could also come in from the cold after only featuring once under Mourinho so far.
Spurs are desperate to win some silverware and the head coach, who is a huge fan of the famous competition, has stated that his side will be doing all they can to ensure they are in the hat for the fourth round draw.
"For me a competition is a competition, a match is a match and again the FA Cup is a special cup. I don’t see it in another way," he told reporters at Hotspur Way.
"If Middlesbrough beat us they beat us because they were very good or because we were bad. Or because we were not good enough but not because the Tottenham coach didn’t give to the cup the responsibility, not at all, no chance.
"We go with the potential we have. We don’t have Harry Kane, unlucky. We don’t have other players, unlucky. We don’t have Hugo Lloris,unlucky. That’s football but we go with everything we have."
Here's the team we believe will start at the Riverside Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Predicted Spurs XI vs Middlesbrough: Vorm; Walker-Peters, Foyth, Sanchez, Sessegnon; Dier, Winks; Lucas, Lo Celso, Lamela; Son.
