Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas has declared that thoughtless scheduling will prevent him from taking the League Cup seriously this season.

Spurs will face Aston Villa in the third round of the competition tonight, just over 48 hours after a last-gasp win over Cardiff City in the Premier League.

He told The Mirror: "We have an impossible game to play. The ideal situation would have been to play Wednesday. I don't think we were given a fair chance, like the others, to play this competition this year.

"It is impossible for our players that were involved on Sunday to play that game. I am not sure I want to risk the players who played here with a hamstring injury that may take them six weeks to recover.

"The Premier League is more important. This team is not experienced to play after two days. We will have to rotate the squad."

Tonight's clash comes in the middle of a hectic fixture schedule for Spurs, with Saturday's London derby at home to Chelsea finishing a run of four games in nine days.