Tottenham Hotspur will be hoping to avoid a potentially massive banana skin when they travel to League One side Colchester United in the FA Cup fourth-round on Saturday.

Flourishing form

After somewhat of a mini-blip to the start of their 2016 where Spurs did not win any of their first three games, they've been pretty free-flowing in the last 10 days with wins over Sunderland and Crystal Palace in the league, as well as getting past Leicester City away from home to secure this tie.

Mauricio Pocchetino's team scored nine goals in these three games and only conceded two to remain in the top-four of the Premier League and reach the last 32 of this competition, which they would surely target as a chance to end a seven-year trophy drought.

FA Cup history

Spurs have a very proud history in the FA Cup as one of the most sucessful teams with eight successes to their name, the last of those was 25 years ago however.

Spurs are likely to rest several of the regular first-team players who played in the previous round. (Picture: Getty Images)
Spurs are likely to rest several of the regular first-team players who played in the previous round. (Picture: Getty Images)

Their more recent history does not make too pleasant reading, as they've only made it past this stage of the competition once in the past five years - when they reached the semi finals in 2012.

Opponents look

Meanwhile opponents Colchester United come into this glamour tie on pretty much the worse run of form possible, as they sit rock bottom of League One and seven points from safety having not won a league game since the middle of October.

However, they did beat higher league opposition in the third-round with a victory over struggling Charlton Athletic.

Team news

Defender Jan Vertoghen will miss this game and many more to come after suffering a knee ligiment injury against Crystal Palace. Kevin Wimmer will most likely fill his void.

Elsewhere, you would expect the likes of Harry Kane and Delle Alli not to start this game ahead of a busy schedule in the league.

Third-tier outfit Colchester do have their former Premier League stars available again in the form of Nicky Shorey and Darren Ambrose, who could be key for such an occasion as this. 

Stats

This will be the first ever competitive meeting between these two teams.

Colchester have the leading scorer in ths season's FA Cup with Macauley Bonne grabbing four in the competition.

Spurs have lost just one of their last 13 FA Cup ties against lower league teams, however this was their most recent meeting - against Leeds United in 2013.