The Independent

Southampton’s survival battle ended at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday after a 3-1 defeat consigned them to relegation from the Premier League in record-breaking fashion.

The club’s fate had felt inevitable for months, but a 2-1 victory for Wolves at bottom-three club Ipswich on Saturday opened a 22-point gap to safety for the south coast club.

It meant Ivan Juric’s team required a draw or win in north London to mathematically stay up for at least another week but a first-half brace from Brennan Johnson set the visitors on course for an immediate return to the Championship.

Mateus Fernandes grabbed a late consolation before Mathys Tel struck a stoppage-time penalty for Spurs as relegation with seven fixtures left gives Southampton a new Premier League record – while Derby and Huddersfield, in 2008 and 2019 respectively, had their fate sealed in March, both had only six matches to go.

Three points for Tottenham lifts some of the gloom around Ange Postecoglou’s side ahead of Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final first leg at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Postecoglou dealt with fresh scrutiny after Thursday's defeat at Chelsea, but this time faced a manager with survival at stake.

It took only 60 seconds for the Tottenham fans to make their feelings clear with calls for chair Daniel Levy to leave after a protest against him and owners ENIC had been organised pre-match.

Spurs started strongly, though, with early penalty appeals by Dominic Solanke waved away before Johnson had a shot blocked and Aaron Ramsdale then produced a flying save from Cristian Romero's header.

Southampton responded to almost take a shock lead in the 12th minute when Tyler Dibling chipped in for Kamaldeen Sulemana, but his volley was deflected onto the post by Pedro Porro and Spurs survived.

A minute later and the deadlock was broken with Johnson scoring for the first time at home in 2025.

It was a sweeping move as James Maddison found Son Heung-min and he waited for the overlap from Djed Spence, who cut back for Johnson to rifle home.

Ramsdale denied Romero again soon after following a diving header by the Argentina defender before Spurs thought they had a second after 33 minutes, only for a lengthy VAR review to follow.

Bergvall prodded in after another Romero header but Graham Scott at Stockley Park took nearly five minutes to decide Romero had been offside, which prompted Postecoglou – days after he bemoaned technology "killing" the game – to joke on the touchline with a coin-flip gesture.

When play resumed amid boos from both sets of fans, Tottenham did make it 2-0 with three minutes of the first half left when a Maddison header after a Rodrigo Bentancur cross set up Johnson to poke in for his 16th of the season.

Son had a shot blocked at the start of the second half, but it was largely played at a pedestrian pace.

Ramsdale produced a fine save to stop Solanke's low effort before he was penalised for handball outside the area, but Saints did begin to push as the seconds ticked away.

Vicario denied Sulemana before Southampton at least gave their loyal fans something to shout about when Fernandes evaded Spence to fire home on the stroke of full-time.

It gave the away faithful brief hope, but Tottenham had the final say as Johnson was fouled by Welington inside the penalty area but watched his hat-trick hopes disappear as Romero, now with the captain's armband, gave the ball to Tel, who fired home his first Premier League goal.

Full-time followed but the Southampton players were applauded by their supporters as attention for them turns to next season.

PA

Follow live coverage as Tottenham Hotspur face Southampton today in the Premier League. Another top-flight season will be covered in full right here with The Independent, as reigning champions Manchester City look to make it an unprecedented five titles in a row come the end of 2024/25.

The likes of Arsenal and Liverpool will be chasing Pep Guardiola's side, but just as fascinating will be the race for Champions League places, with more teams than ever before having designs on top-four finishes. Chelsea remain big-spending, Manchester United's latest rebuild continues and both Tottenham and Newcastle will expect improvements this year - yet it was Aston Villa who snared fourth last term.

Meanwhile, it's Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich Town who made it back to the elite after promotion last year and each will have hope they can make it more than a one-year stay. Follow the latest live action from the Premier League below:

Ange Postecoglou has implored Tottenham Hotspur to “stick to something” to bring about lasting change at the club in echoes of Antonio Conte’s final act as manager.

Postecoglou is under more pressure after a 1-0 loss at Chelsea on Thursday made it 16 defeats in the Premier League this season and the Australian faced backlash for his decision to cup his ear in celebration towards the away Spurs fans before Pape Sarr’s strike was subsequently ruled out.

While the 59-year-old later insisted his gesture had been misinterpreted, it was another fracture in his relationship with the supporters ahead of Sunday’s visit of Southampton, which is followed by the first leg of a pivotal Europa League quarter-final with Eintracht Frankfurt.

Defeat in the competition would extend Tottenham’s trophy drought into an 18th year and more than likely put Postecoglou on the brink, but he reflected on the difficulty of the job and made remarks akin to Conte’s explosive rant at St Mary’s in 2023.

Conte, days before his departure, stated: “It is time to change this situation if Tottenham want to change. If they want to continue in this way, they can change manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change believe me.”

Postecoglou said: “Every manager’s got their own sort of views on this. I just don’t think it’s about the managers themselves.

“I’ve almost lasted two years, it’s pretty good for Tottenham! At some point, I think the club needs to stick to something. If I say it now it sounds self-serving and defeats the purpose, so maybe not now.

“But I think that if you want to change the course of your events, you need to change materially a lot of things in terms of the way your outlook as a club.

“Last year was a good year, I don’t care what anybody says. We lost Harry (Kane). I know everyone talks about our start (but) we lost Harry, we finished fifth, we changed the way we played.

“It seems like, you have one good year, you have one poor year and then that’s it, ‘let’s move on to the next’, but that’s what I accepted so I can’t sit here and say, ‘ah, woe is me’. That’s the challenge I accepted.

“Fair to say at the moment I’m not doing a good job of turning that mind-shift around, but I am a fighter. I will continue fighting until told otherwise.”

Amid a chaotic season, Postecoglou does still have the chance to win a trophy and become one of the most successful managers in the club’s history.

“What a trophy does is eliminate some of the noise around the club and what other people feel is missing,” Postecoglou admitted.

“It’s not what I feel is the only piece that’s missing. I think you need to build something sustainable and I’ve said that from the start.

“We started that last year with the way we played and the squad we have, a young squad we want to keep growing, but certainly it would quieten a lot of the noise, whether internally or externally, about what’s missing at this club.

“If a trophy is the only way – it seems to be the only way – well OK let’s see if we can deliver that and see what happens.”

Ange Postecoglou at least showed more front than his Tottenham team did. It was certainly hard to know what was more brazen in his post-game press conference at Chelsea.

Was it the attempt to move the discussion onto another excoriation of VAR, which is crowd-pleasing, but felt an obvious and irrelevant deflection? Or, was it the insistence that his ear-cupping of the Tottenham Hotspur end after Pape Sarr’s ultimately disallowed goal was actually an invite to “cheer”… and not a goading response to their previous chant of “you don’t know what you’re doing” over Sarr’s introduction.

His answer is worth reading in full.

“Jesus mate, it's incredible how things get interpreted,” the Australian brazenly insisted. “We'd just scored, I just wanted to hear them cheer. Because we'd been through a tough time, and I thought it was a cracking goal. I wanted them to get really excited.

“I felt at that point we could potentially go on and win the game. I just felt momentum was on our [side]. It doesn't bother me, it's not the first time they've booed my substitutions or my decisions, that's fine, they're allowed to do that. But we'd just scored a goal, just scored an equaliser, I was just hoping we could get some excitement.

“If people want to read into that, that somehow I'm trying to make a point about something, like I said, we'd been through a tough time, but I just felt there was a bit of a momentum shift there. If they get really behind the lads, I thought we had the momentum to finish on top of them.”

Is anyone really buying this? The fans don’t seem to be, in the same way there are now very few backers for his managerial tenure.

The remarkable thing about that is that it wasn't too long ago that there was immense sympathy for Postecoglou. Everyone could see the extent of the injuries. Everyone could see the restrictions at Tottenham, where the wage bill has dropped well below Aston Villa’s.

This was fair context.

And yet, if Postecoglou’s results have taken a real downward turn since those angelic first months in the job, so has his demeanour and relationship with the media. He is no longer cast as a plain-talking Aussie bringing a breath of fresh air. His media interactions instead have a passive-aggressive tone.

The press conference after the Chelsea defeat the most extreme example so far of Postecoglou acting like it was an affront to even ask him about any of this, as if it was somehow betraying the true spirit of football.

This is, of course, despite him bringing it on. You can’t do something like that gesture, in that context, and think it won't be a talking point. It was literally all Spurs fans were talking about.

More importantly, the football has inevitably become just as confused and contradictory as the off-field persona. So much for the purity of Postecoglou’s tactical vision. His Spurs team couldn’t look further away from it. The attack barely creates, the midfield can almost be walked through, and the defence is porous.

And this almost two years into his Spurs project. Again, there were initially much bigger reasons for this, but Postecoglou has gradually contributed more and more to his own downfall.

The situation has so many parallels with Erik ten Hag last season. He had similar injury issues, but the problem was that it got no better when he had all his major players back. The team were still as bad. Something deeper was obviously wrong. He couldn't adapt.

This season may yet force Spurs into a similar decision that Manchester United faced with Ten Hag.

It isn’t impossible that Postecoglou ends the season with Spurs’ first trophy for 17 years. They are just four games from the Europa League final and there is much greater unpredictability in knock-out competitions. To get that far, though, Spurs are going to have to rally in some way. Does that look likely right now?

Postecoglou is going to have to restore some clarity to the team, but it’s hard not to think the uncertainty around his future has started to affect that; to cause a drift. And that’s a point worth making.

What we are seeing is a man under pressure. It is one of the brutal things about management, no matter how much coaches are paid. It doesn’t just lead to professional criticism but a feeling that an individual is having everything about them torn apart. That can be a lonely place and it's hard not to feel some sympathy.

Many other managers have lashed out in such situations. It must be so tempting. But the better recourse is always to take the high road. Instead, this is far from the first such interaction that Postecoglou has got involved in.

That’s only ever going to make things worse. It makes an erosion of supporter goodwill much more likely, especially when you are losing a greater proportion of league games than any Spurs manager ever has. Managerial authority starts to go.

After again insisting that he just wanted to hear the supporters cheer, Postecoglou was directly asked about the danger of alienating the fans through such gestures.

"You know what, I am at such a disconnect with the world these days, that who knows, maybe you're right. I don't know,” he shrugged. “But that's not what my intention was.”

He was clearly fed up with discussing it.

“What I focus on are the things I can control. I can control our football, the way we play and the way we conduct ourselves and that’s what I concentrate on.”

Many might say the last point has been the real problem.

Liveupdated

Chelsea vs Tottenham LIVE: Latest Premier League team news as Blues face fight to regain top four place

Enzo Maresca’s side look to stay in the Champions League places as they take on 14th-placed Spurs

Chelsea take on Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League tonight, as Enzo Maresca’s side look to land a blow on their rivals in the race for Champions League football.

The Blues began the week in fourth place despite a mixed run form over the last few months, but after Manchester City and Newcastle both picked up wins on Wednesday, they have dropped to sixth ahead of Spurs’s visit.

Any slip up at this point could prove costly in the battle for a spot in Europe’s premier cup competition, with just five points separating Chelsea and 10th-placed Bournemouth ahead of kick-off.

But it doesn’t get any easier for the Blues as they prepare to take on Spurs tonight.

Though Ange Postecoglou’s side started the week in 14th, they still possess the quality to hurt any of the league’s top teams, and this particular rivalry has a track record of producing fireworks in recent seasons.

Follow all the latest build-up and team news from Stamford Bridge below:

Chelsea’s absurd finances are a mess of the Premier League’s making

Even by football’s standards, there was considerable shock. WhatsApps immediately went around executives at the news that Chelsea look to have avoided breaching the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules last season by selling their women’s team and other subsidiaries to the club’s parent company.

The Blues announced a £128.4m profit in their financial results for the year ending June 2024, up from an announced pre-tax losses of £90.1m in the first full year under Todd Boehly's Clearlake Capital consortium, with fans increasingly disgruntled with the ownership.

All of the jokes about what they could next sell to themselves don't seem like jokes anymore. A hotel is one thing. But an actual football team? This is what a club is supposed to be about. It’s the entire raison d’etre.

Chelsea’s absurd finances are a mess of the Premier League’s making

After Chelsea’s latest financial figures sparked controversy, Miguel Delaney discusses how this has happened in the race to beat the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules

Miguel Delaney3 April 2025 18:30

Chelsea and Liverpool eye Dean Huijsen as Bournemouth brace for bids

Chelsea and Liverpool are both aiming to secure the signing of Dean Huijsen this summer, although Real Madrid are monitoring the Spanish centre-half.

The 19-year-old has been one of many Bournemouth revelations this season, as the south-coast club are bracing themselves for huge interest in a good group of inspired signings. Huijsen's situation is made a little simpler, due to the understanding he has a release clause of around £50m.

Both Chelsea and Liverpool have been seeking to sign a new centre-half, and have been simultaneously working on a potential deal to bring the 19-year-old in. While the Stamford Bridge hierarchy are felt to have currently made more progress, Huijsen's future is seen as very much up in the air.

Chelsea and Liverpool eye Dean Huijsen as Bournemouth brace for bids

Real Madrid are also monitoring the centre-half, one of a number of Bournemouth players expected to command interest

Miguel Delaney3 April 2025 18:15

Prediction: Chelsea to have the edge

It was a chaotic match when these two met in December, and both sides’ form has become worse since then, though the hosts are the clear favourites.

The Blues should put in a big performance as they look to take a step closer to Champions League qualification against a rival that they have a good recent record against.

Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham

Will Castle3 April 2025 18:00

Odds for tonight's meeting

Chelsea win - 8/13

Draw - 7/2

Tottenham win - 7/2

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Will Castle3 April 2025 17:45

Predicted line-ups

Chelsea XI: Sanchez; James, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella; Fernandez, Caicedo; Sancho, Palmer, Madueke; Jackson.

Tottenham XI: Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Bentancur, Sarr; Johnson, Maddison, Son; Solanke.

Will Castle3 April 2025 17:30

Tottenham team news

Lucas Bergvall missed Sweden’s fixtures in the international break but the Tottenham midfielder is over his illness and may well feature.

While Richarlison is back in training and has an outside chance of involvement, both Dejan Kulusevski and Kevin Danso are a couple of weeks away from a return.

Will Castle3 April 2025 17:15

Chelsea team news

Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke are all in line to return for Chelsea, with Jackson having been out since February - a presence that has been sorely missed at the top of the pitch.

Romeo Lavia is a doubt after the injury-prone midfielder’s latest setback.

Chelsea have no new injury concerns to report elsewhere, although Marc Guiu and Omari Kellyman remain sidelined with their respective long-term injuries.

Will Castle3 April 2025 17:00

Is Chelsea vs Tottenham on TV? Kick-off time, channel and how to watch

The match kicks off at 8pm BST on Thursday 3 April at Stamford Bridge in London.

How can I watch it?

The match will be broadcast live in the UK on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League, with coverage starting at 7pm.

Will Castle3 April 2025 16:45

Chelsea vs Tottenham LIVE

Good evening and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Chelsea’s crucial clash against Tottenham in the Premier League.

The Blues began the week in fourth place despite a mixed run form over the last few months, but after Manchester City and Newcastle both picked up wins on Wednesday, they have dropped to sixth ahead of Spurs’s visit.

Any slip up at this point could prove costly in the battle for Champions League quality, with just five points separating Chelsea and 10th-placed Bournemouth ahead of kick-off.

And while Tottenham are enduring a dire season themselves, languishing in 14th, they still possess the quality to hurt their fierce London rivals.

We’ll have all the action and build-up, right here.

Will Castle3 April 2025 16:30

Chelsea face Tottenham in the final Premier League game of the midweek schedule with the London rivals having plenty to prove at Stamford Bridge on Thursday (8pm, Sky Sports Main Event).

For Chelsea, it is a chance to cement their place in the top four after a ropey run of results, while Spurs are just desperate for a win with just one in their last five matches.

There has been little to cheer about in the Premier League for Spurs this season, but they did reach the semi-finals of the League Cup, before losing to Liverpool, and they are still in with a chance of silverware in the Europa League, where they face Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals.

When the sides met earlier in the season Spurs let a 2-0 lead slip and lost 4-3 at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, with Cole Palmer scoring twice from the penalty spot.

That was the third win in a row for Chelsea over Tottenham and you have to go back to 2018 for the last time the visitors won this fixture at Stamford Bridge. Christian Eriksen cancelled out Alvaro Morata’s opener for the home side, before Dele Alli scored twice to secure a 3-1 win.

Coming into this game, only relegation-threatened Leicester (10) and Southampton (12) have lost more Premier League away games this season than Tottenham, who are on eight so far and Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou would love to give his fans something to celebrate.

Chelsea vs Tottenham Betting Preview: Blues Hold An Advantage

Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca will be hoping to see more from his side than he did in a recent match against the club’s U21s. The first team lost 3-0, prompting the Blues boss to cancel the squad’s day off.

The fact they have won nine and drawn two of their last 12 meetings with Spurs should give them confidence going into this one, along with the fact that they have won more Premier League games (36) and scored more Premier League goals (120) against Tottenham than they have against any other opponent.

The two sides are separated by 10 places and 15 points, and you would expect this one to be another win for Chelsea. However, so much depends on which Chelsea turns up.

Since being tipped by the media as title contenders in December, following a run of six wins and two draws from eight games, they have struggled to rediscover that kind of form.

Since Christmas, they have won just four Premier League games, just one more than Spurs. That run of form has coincided with a dip in form from Cole Palmer, who has scored just three in his last 14, as well as injuries to Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke.

Football betting sites are can see Chelsea bouncing back to form here, pricing them at 7/10 for the win, while you can get 37/10 on Spurs and 15/4 on a draw.

Chelsea have won by two or more goals in four of the last six matches between these teams and we’re backing them to do the same again on Thursday.

Chelsea vs Tottenham prediction 1: Chelsea to win by two goals - 4/1 Bet365

James To Hit The Target Again

Chelsea captain Reece James scored a superb freekick for England last week, as he played his first game for his country since September 2022.

The 25-year-old opened the scoring for England with a first-half free-kick in a 3-0 World Cup qualifier win over Latvia before Eberechi Eze also netted his first goal for his country.

Eze followed his strike up with another for his club on Saturday as they secured their place in the FA Cup semi-finals, so can James do the same?

James’ last Premier League goal came back in January when he scored in injury time to earn his side a 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth.

Betting sites are offering 22/1 on him scoring first or last, or 6/1 on him scoring any time.

Chelsea vs Tottenham prediction 2: James to score at any time - 6/1 Bet365

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It’s particularly important not to get carried away by any free bets or casino offers you might receive, both of which are available in abundance on gambling sites, but must be approached with caution.

You can stay in control by making use of the responsible gambling tools offered, such as deposit limits, loss limits, self-exclusion and time-outs.

You may also want to visit the following free organisations to discuss any issues with gambling you might be having:

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Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy has robustly defended the club's spending strategy just days before a planned fan protest.

The club released its financial results for the year ending June 30, 2024, revealing a 4 per cent dip in revenue to £528.2 million.

This decrease is partly attributed to the absence of European football, which saw match receipts fall from £117.6 million to £105.8 million.

Despite this, Tottenham significantly reduced its losses, reporting a £26.2 million loss compared to £86.8 million the previous year.

Levy referenced the current “highly-challenging season” under Ange Postecoglou, with Spurs in 14th position in the Premier League after a difficult winter period with a plethora of injuries, but talked up the importance of a potential Europa League triumph with Tottenham through to the quarter-finals.

Poor domestic form coupled with a 17-year trophy drought and frustration over spending by owners ENIC has increased disgruntlement among supporters, with another protest planned by fan group Change for Tottenham at Sunday’s home fixture with Southampton.

Spurs chairman Levy said in a statement: “We currently find ourselves in 14th position in the Premier League, navigating what has been a highly-challenging season on the pitch.

“We are, however, in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League. Winning this competition would see welcome silverware and mean qualification for the UEFA Champions League. We must do everything we can to support the team in these final key stages.

“Since opening our new stadium in April 2019, we have invested over £700million net in player acquisitions. Recruitment remains a key focus, and we must ensure that we make smart purchases within our financial means.

“I often read calls for us to spend more, given that we are ranked as the ninth richest club in the world.

“However, a closer examination of today’s financial figures reveals that such spending must be sustainable in the long term and within our operating revenues. Our capacity to generate recurring revenues determines our spending power.

“We cannot spend what we do not have, and we will not compromise the financial stability of this club – indeed, our off-pitch revenues have significantly supplemented the lower football revenues this year, testament to our diversified income strategy.”

Change for Tottenham arranged a protest ahead of the home fixture with Manchester United on February 13, which resulted in around 2,000 fans marching down the High Road before they gathered outside the stadium.

Chants for Levy to leave the club followed along with several banners being held up.

One read: ‘Our Game Is About Glory, Levy’s Game Is About Greed’.

Spurs placed ninth in Deloitte’s list of the world’s richest clubs, but Tottenham’s spend of 42 per cent of their revenue on wages was the lowest of any team in the top 10. It was also lower than all eight Premier League clubs in Deloitte’s top 20.

Sunday’s latest Change for Tottenham protest has urged supporters to hold up flags at various points of the Southampton match.

Arsenal and Tottenham are set to meet in the first north London derby held outside of the United Kingdom this summer.

The two Premier League rivals will travel to Hong Kong for a preseason friendly at the Kai Tak Stadium on 31 July.

The newly-opened arena can seat 50,000 fans and hosted rugby’s Hong Kong Sevens event this weekend, with Coldplay due to visit in April for the first concert at the venue.

The match will form part of the Hong Kong Football Festival 2025 (HKFF), with Liverpool among the other teams visiting the city.

Ryan Norys, chief revenue officer of Tottenham Hotspur, said: “There are few bigger occasions in English football than a north London derby and to play this fixture in Hong Kong will be a huge occasion for our passionate fanbase across Asia, as well as providing ideal preparation for the team ahead of the new season.

“As is tour tradition, the club will be involved in so much more than the match itself when we visit, supporting charitable causes, celebrating local culture, delivering football clinics for young people and engaging with fans and partners. We cannot wait to visit such a beautiful place once again.”

The new Women's Super League marks the start of a new era for reigning champions Chelsea, with long-serving boss Emma Hayes having departed in summer to start a new adventure with the USA Women's team.

Last year they just about did enough to claim the title on goal difference ahead of Manchester City, while Arsenal will again hope to make it a three-horse race for the WSL title. Meanwhile Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham will hope to progress after further rebuilding this summer.

Crystal Palace were promoted to replace Bristol City in the top flight, while on a wider note, the league is now under the management and operation of a new organisation set up to lead women's football towards further growth and progression, with Nikki Doucet overseeing both the WSL and Championship in a new phase for the game.

Follow the live action below as Leicester City face Tottenham Hotspur today in the WSL:

Andoni Iraola has insisted his full focus is on doing the best job he can for Bournemouth amid links with Tottenham Hotspur.

Speculation has intensified in recent days that the highly-rated Basque manager may emerges as a top target if Spurs part company with Ange Postecoglou in the coming months.

Iraola has done impressive work since arriving on the south coast at the start of last season, with Bournemouth in the chase for European places in the league and targeting a semi-final berth in the FA Cup against Manchester City this weekend.

Postecoglou, conversely, is a man under pressure with Tottenham languishing in 14th in the table.

Iraola did not comment directly on reports linking him to the role, with the Bournemouth boss hopeful of creating history in the quarter-final clash at the Vitality Stadium this weekend.

“I want to do my job the best I can,” Iraola said. “I don’t know how far we can [go], where we will finish. I want to do my job the best I can. If I don’t do the job very well, they will find someone else. It’s like this in every job.

“I’m really happy here. We have a great opportunity to make the semi-finals [of the FA Cup] for the first time in history. That would be amazing for me personally, and for the club, to achieve new heights.

“But we also know that we have to be realistic. There are better teams than us. We have to fight against teams that are very good. We will try to give the best level we have. I don’t know how far we are going to go.”

Victory on Sunday would secure a trip to Wembley for Bournemouth as they seek to continue a strong season.

The hosts beat Pep Guardiola’s side for the first time in their history in the Premier League in November and Iraola is hopeful that his side can repeat the feat.

“The draw we cannot change, once it is finished it is what we have. We are in a different moment, we hope we are close to the level we gave that day [in November], it is the only way we have a chance.

“I think we have a big opportunity this weekend, anyone who steps on the pitch has to be ready to give everything, and even that might not be enough to beat City. The work for everyone is huge, but the chance to play at Wembley - for City it is less important as they play there a lot, but for us it is huge."

Iraola has been given a clean bill of health with his squad, though Marcus Tavernier is unable to play 90 minutes as is thus likely to be included on the bench.