Fulham V Tottenham Hotspur
Football : England : FA Cup Quarter-Final
Saturday 6th March 2010 – Kickoff 5:15pm

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With Chelsea a clear favourite to finish the semi-finals line-up tomorrow, Saturday’s football sees a mouth-watering London derby which has me scratching my head looking for a good bet.

Perhaps this is one to be enjoyed without a wager, but I hear that "it matters more when there is money on it" ... So here goes

Fulham

Roy Hodgson really is quite a manager. His side currently lie 9th in the league, and are still very much in Europe. On a tight budget, the well run west London club has done well ever since it entered the Premier League. This year, as one will find in most years, Fulham’s home form has been key.

The Cottagers recently came from behind at home to see off Birmingham in the league, and also managed to knock out reigning Europa Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk, courtesy an excellent 2-1 win in London followed by a 1-1 draw away. After these gruelling matches, Fulham still managed to go up to Sunderland and come back with a well earned point.

It is performances of this nature, filled from start to finish with steely determination and fight, which make Fulham a difficult team to bet against when they are at home. Not long ago Fulham humiliated the visiting champions Manchester United by a 3-0 score line. Their next match, following this FA Cup match, will be a return to face United up at Old Trafford in Manchester, and Hodgson will surely try and get a result here to fill them with confidence for that trip up north.

Fulham have had a long season, playing more competitive fixtures than even the top 4 sides. They’re showing no real signs of fatigue as they continue on their amazing cup runs against superior competition. They will surely fancy their chances here against a team that they drew against 0-0 earlier in the league.

Spurs have been scoring a few goals of late, but Fulham are quite stingy here at Craven Cottage, where they have lost only once in their last 11 encounters against Premier League opposition.

Tottenham

Tottenham have a new and quite unlikely hero in the form of Roman Pavlyuchenko, who has suddenly taken over from Defoe as their main threat up front. The want-away Russian grabbed a brace against Bolton after coming off the bench to put 2 past Wigan, and also scored the opening goal in their win against Everton. "Pav" will surely start again here alongside his English strike partner and if Tottenham do score, you just know he will be involved in some way.

With all these recent wins, it is easy to forget that Tottenham are actually dealing with quite a few injuries at the moment. Woodgate, Ledly King, Jenas and Cudicini are all definitely out, while Bentley, Lennon and now Tom Huddlestone are all also serious doubts.

Manager Harry Redknapp definitely has his work cut out for him and it would not surprise me to see him settle for a draw here, so they can take the tie back to White Hart Lane, where they would have the advantage. Indeed, Spurs have required replays in both the previous rounds to make it to the quarter-finals.

Against Everton, Spurs came out and performed brilliantly to go ahead, but they failed to show up in the 2nd half and were frankly quite lucky to come away with the win. Anything similar here would be punished by Fulham, so they will definitely have to play well the whole 90 minutes in order to remain in the tournament.

THe Betting Verdict

I really can’t separate these sides, but if there is to be a winning goal, it will surely be something special.

I see this being quite close all the way through and so the bets, should definitely not be large ones.

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Consider the Draw at halftime at 2.20 (Bet365)
or the Draw at Full-time at 3.25 (Bet365)