OPINION
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino will be sweating alongside Chelsea over whether current Juventus forward Gonzalo Higuain will feature in the pair’s meeting on Thursday.
Spurs are set to face the Blues in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final and Maurizio Sarri could potentially have a new top-quality attacker to deploy for the game in the form of Higuain.
According to the Daily Mail the 31-year-old forward is hoping to jet into London on Monday to finalise his loan move to Chelsea.
Since then Simon Johnson of the Evening Standard took to his personal Twitter account to clarify the fact that Higuain may face Tottenham on Thursday if Chelsea are able to get a deal tied up and register him as a player by Wednesday afternoon.
Just to clarify, #Higuain will be able to face #thfc in League Cup semi-final on Thursday – as long as he is registered as a #cfc player by 12pm on Wednesday.
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) January 21, 2019
Nope. Spoke to someone at the Football League this morning just to double check.
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) January 21, 2019
“Just to clarify, #Higuain will be able to face #thfc in League Cup semi-final on Thursday – as long as he is registered as a #cfc player by 12pm on Wednesday,” stated the journalist.
“Spoke to someone at the Football League this morning just to double check.”
Given that Chelsea’s forward options have let them down this season and Thursday’s game being important due to it putting them one step closer to a trophy if they win, the Blues will be sweating over getting Higuain registered in time.
The 31-year-old forward is a prolific force shown by the fact he has scored 117 goals in 192 outings in Serie A and 107 goals in 190 La Liga appearances during his career.
However the Spurs manager will equally be sweating over Higuain playing as he could make a real difference in the tie due to his quality.
Spurs’ defence didn’t exactly look overly solid against Fulham despite Pochettino’s side winning 2-1 and if Higuain features he could get amongst the goals specially when you consider he’ll be extra motivated to make a memorable first impression.
Also with it going to the wire, Pochettino may have to mix up his plans just before the game to deal with the new threat of Higuain as he will deserve special attention.
This all means that Poch will be sweating as much as Chelsea with them in race against time to get Higuain registered by Wednesday midday so he can feature.