Conte Rules Mikel, Terry Out Of Spurs Clash; Praises Pochettino

All that could change spectacularly in the course of any 90 minutes and were it to change during the course of these 90 minutes, we’d also be destroying an nearly three decade-long tradition of not losing to Spurs as Stamford Bridge. In private, him and Steve Holland have apologised to each other, when they met at the Spurs training ground last month to discuss Spurs’ players’ roles in the England set-up Holland is now part of.

“I would like to be a little younger, but that is life, we all have to get old one day, it’s good that I’m still here”, said the towering Karlovic.

The two clubs’ rivalry has intensified in recent years.

Six months on, they are a team transformed, having won six games without conceding a goal since Antonio Conte’s switch to a 3-4-3 formation during Chelsea’s 3-0 loss at Arsenal in late September. Both clubs were charged with a failure to control their players, with Chelsea fined £290,000 and Tottenham £175,000, both on appeal, after previous similar breaches of FA rules were taken into consideration.

But Pochettino insists the jibes were not the only source of aggravation. “The provocation was not the only problem”, he said, looking back on what went wrong.

“We all worked very hard and enjoyed the game against Middlesbrough”.

“We cannot behave with freedom in your house because maybe someone can hack your camera in your house and look at what you are doing. In the first half Tottenham played very well, in the second half… another game”, the former Juventus boss recalls. “You lose your cool. I see the players are very happy”. All players understand, too. “I think Croatia are the favourites to win the tie”, Del Potro told a news conference, sitting in front of the giant and elusive silverware on display. “And if we don’t, ok, that is football, no?”

City’s manager must decide whether to select Yaya Toure, who scored twice against Crystal Palace last weekend, having been overlooked at the start of the season, while Vincent Kompany (knee) is a definite non-starter.

Tottenham have won just one of their last nine fixtures in all competitions and go into the game on the back of a Champions League exit at Monaco’s hands in mid-week.

He broke again in the 11th game of the second set and held serve to take a commanding 2-0 lead before Delbonis hauled himself back into the match.

Del Potro, a veteran of losing finals against Spain in 2008 and 2011, says defeating his mate and fellow former US Open victor Cilic is key if Argentina are to break their Davis Cup hoodoo.