TOTTENHAM will take on one of the forgotten men of English football when they entertain Roy Hodgson's Fulham on Tuesday evening.
This season has been all about the form of Bobby Zamora at Craven Cottage. The striker has notched 11 goals for Fulham, prompting calls from some quarters for an England call-up.
But for Fulham's other English striker, Andrew Johnson, 2009 was one drawn-out nightmare.
Once one of the most feared strikers in the Premier League, the man who has scored over 100 goals in English football and won eight full caps for his country has struggled with a succession of shoulder and groin injuries, and managed only seven league goals since his £10.5million move from Everton in the summer of 2008.
But football has a habit of throwing up twists of fate, and it is one such twist that has given Johnson the chance to reignite his Fulham career.
Zamora's injury at Stoke City on January 5 coincided almost precisely with Johnson's return to fitness and, with Zamora now out of action indefinitely, Johnson has his chance to shine.
Unfortunately, he walks into a side which is faltering at just the wrong moment, and Hodgson is watching his dreams of European football in danger of fading over the south London horizon.
Fulham midfielder Danny Murphy recently admitted that scoring against Manchester United was a 'sweeter' feeling than netting against any other club.
In fact, Murphy's goal against the champions on Boxing Day was Fulham's last moment of joy in the league. In the five games since, they have lost three and drawn two, slipping to ninth in the table.
Their latest defeat, 2-0 at mid-table meanderers Blackburn Rovers, was Fulham's sixth on the road this season, and their away-day woes threaten to undermine impressive home form which has seen them lose only twice.
A trip to White Hart Lane then, a ground where Fulham have won only once in the last 60 years - 3-0 in 2003 - is hardly the tonic Hodgson needs as he bids to halt his team's stutter.
He will also have to cope without American striker Clint Dempsey, scorer of six goals this season, who picked up a knee injury in the defeat at Blackburn, leaving Johnson to lead the line alone.
Unlike Hull City, Fulham will travel to the Lane with every intention of playing football, which should make for an open, expansive game.
But that should play into Tottenham's hands, and an eighth home league win of the season beckons.