Tottenham Hotspur begin their pursuit of winning the EFL Cup on Wednesday evening as they host Gillingham FC in the third round, looking to keep up the winning feeling at White Hart Lane.

Hosts looking to keep up winning feeling

Mauricio Pochettino will look to this competition as maybe the best chance of winning a trophy this season so therefore will take the game very seriously against their League One opponents.

Spurs will be confident of getting the victory after three successive wins in the Premier League with the latest against Sunderland at the weekend.

The Lillywhites come into the game on the back of a narrow 1-0 win agains the Black Catsat the weekend, with the winner coming from Harry Kane

Kane celebrates his winner on Sunday but will miss the Gillingham game with injury | Photo:
Kane celebrates his winner on Sunday but will miss the Gillingham game with injury | Photo: Julian Finney / Getty Images

The Gills looking to knock out Premier League opposition again

On the other hand, the Gills will look to eliminate another Premier League team after they knocked Watford out in the second round, winning 2-1 at Vicarage Road.

Justin Edinburgh's side though haven't made the best of starts to the League One season as they sit in 13th position after eight games. They also lost their last game at the weekend to Port Vale 2-1 but will look to put that behind them and try to give Spurs a fright.

Lillywhites have won the two previous meetings

The two sides have met once before in a competitive fixture also in a third round League Cup tie when Spurs won 4-2 at Preistfield in 1982. They have also played each other in a friendly fixture in 2002 with again Spurs coming out on top winning the game 2-1.

Team News

Pochettino will be without star striker Kane for the game due to an ankle injury. Danny Rose is also out of the game with a hamstring injury. Even though Moussa Dembele and Eric Dier are okay after coming off against Sunderland at the weekend injured, they are likely to be rested for the game.

Spurs are likely to play fringe such as Tom Carroll and Kieran Trippier from the start of the game and they will be hoping to show what they are worth in the team.

The visitors will be without Jamie O'Hara for the game, who is out with a heel injury. The good news though is that Bradley Dack, who was substituted in the 79th minute of the game against Port Vale, has recovered in time for the match and is likely to start.

Rory Donnelly is also back in contention for the visitors despite picking up a knock in training before Saturday's game. There could also be some familiar faces in the visitors team with former Liverpool and West Ham United left-back Paul Konchesky and former Arsenal striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas likely to play some part in the game.

Predicted line-ups

Tottenham Hotspur predicted lineup: (4-2-3-1) Vorm; Trippier, Alderweireld, Wimmer, Davies; Wanyama, Carroll; Lamela, Eriksen, Onomah; Janssen.

Gillingham predicted lineup: (4-3-3)  Nelson; Pask, Jackson, Ehmer, Oshilaja; Byrne, Martin, Wright; Dack, Emmanuel-Thomas, McDonald.

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