Red-hot Kane braced for tough Burnley test

Preview: Burnley v Tottenham

Tottenham’s New Year’s Day annihilation of Chelsea will live long in the memory, but Harry Kane’s only focus now is overcoming Burnley in the FA Cup. Spurs brought in 2015 in unforgettable style, thrashing their London rivals 5-3 in a wonderful game at White Hart Lane.

Kane was the star of the show, netting a brace and assisting two more, but the fans’ favourite is now fully-focused on progressing from the FA Cup third round.

Burnley stand in their way and, while Spurs overcame beat them 2-1 just two weeks ago, the England U21s international is expecting a tough time at Turf Moor tonight.

“We all enjoyed the win against Chelsea but we won’t get carried away,” Kane said. “We’ll keep our feet on the ground and look forward to this game. We want to do well in all competitions and Burnley away will be a tough tie for us. ”

Mauricio Pochettino will be without Nabil Bentaleb as the midfielder has jetted off to the African Nations Cup with Algeria. Ryan Mason is a doubt with a hamstring injury sustained just 11 minutes into the win against Chelsea and Erik Lamela could again be absent with a calf complaint.

Meanwhile George Boyd wants Burnley to continue their good run of form in tonight’s clash. The Clarets will go into the third-round clash at Turf Moor on a high after fighting back to claim draws against Manchester City and Newcastle in the past week, scoring five goals in the process. Boyd, who scored against both City and Newcastle, has fond memories of the FA Cup having reached the final with Hull 12 months ago.

Although survival in the top flight is clearly the Clarets’ priority, Boyd sees the match as a great chance to post a victory over one of the Premier League’s big boys.

The midfielder told burnleyfootballclub.com: “These were a tough run of fixtures and nobody expected us to get anything probably but we’ve shown our character again.

“We can go into our next run of games full of confidence now on the back of the last two results. It’s a great game and hopefully there’ll be a big crowd at Turf Moor to get behind us.”

After naming the same side for six straight games, boss Sean Dyche will make changes. His hand has been forced after both captain Jason Shackell and his replacement Kevin Long sustained injuries during the first half at St James’ Park. Shackell’s calf problem is not thought to be serious but Monday is likely to come too soon while Burnley were still waiting to hear whether Long’s knee injury was as bad as first feared.