Confident Clint Dempsey thinks Tottenham 'will be fine' against Norwich

Clint Dempsey (GETTY IMAGES)

Clint Dempsey thinks Tottenham will have no problem swatting aside Norwich tonight if the Londoners put on a repeat display of the one that took care of Southampton on Sunday.

Tottenham returned to winning ways at the weekend with a 2-1 win at St Mary's, with Dempsey bagging the winner following a first-half deluge in which the Londoners could have bagged four or five goals.

Although their efforts were much more measured after the break, the gulf in class between the two sides was clear, and that should be the case again tonight at Carrow Road if Spurs play to their full potential.

Although the Canaries recently gained the scalp of Arsenal and were unlucky to take just a point from their trip to Aston Villa, Chris Hughton's team have struggled for consistency this term and currently sit two places above the relegation zone.

And for that reason, Dempsey believes Tottenham should have little trouble progressing to the quarter-finals of the competition with a win in Norfolk tonight.

"It's going to be a difficult game," the American told Spurs TV Online.

"I saw the game against Villa. It was at Villa Park and they were taking it to them in the second half so Norwich are a team that does have quality and a good work rate.

"We will have to go there, be sharp and put in a professional performance, but I feel that if we go there and play as we are capable of and perform as we did in the first half at Southampton, we will be fine."

The match pits Canaries boss Hughton against his former employers, with whom he spent 10 years as part of the coaching staff and 14 years as a player.

Current Tottenham assistant Steffen Freund has a lot to thank the 53-year-old for.

The German arrived in London in 1998 desperately under-prepared for life as a footballer in the English capital and Hughton, then the assistant manager, took the midfielder under his wing.

"It was always a dream of mine to play in England after Euro '96," said Freund, who swapped Borussia Dortmund for White Hart Lane in 1998.

"Then came the offer. I didn't have time to learn English and he taught me some of the language. I didn't speak a word of English, but he told me what all the bad words were and the football language too, which was important.

"He helped me learn words like corner flag and set-piece and that helped me a lot. He was the key man for me in terms of helping me settle in at Spurs."

Tottenham are expected to make several changes to their line-up given that this will be their third game in seven days.

Hugo Lloris should start in goal and there could also be places for young trio Andros Townsend, Yago Falque and Adam Smith.

PA