Tottenham's poor Barclays Premier League form sunk to a new low yesterday when they suffered only their third home defeat of the campaign against Norwich.

The fourth-place Londoners now appear to be out of the reckoning for third place and are level with Newcastle, who lead Chelsea by two points with five games left.

To make matters worse for Harry Redknapp, he has a major selection headache in defence ahead of Sunday's semi-final after Younes Kaboul hobbled off with a knee injury yesterday.

Michael Dawson is out for the season with an ankle injury, while William Gallas and Ledley King have struggled with calf and knee complaints all season, meaning Nelsen may be thrust into action at Wembley just three months after his release from Blackburn.

He said: "I've played them (Chelsea) for the last eight seasons, we've all played against them.

"That's why I was brought in, to help out if situations arise like that, of course.

"We've got a squad of 25, every one of them will be needed at some stage in the rest of the season. It's really important and I'm looking forward to it."

Despite only drawing at Fulham last night, Chelsea have undergone a mini-transformation under interim manager Roberto Di Matteo.

The Italian has got his squad playing with more fluency and venom than they had under his predecessor Andre Villas-Boas, who was sacked in March after last then a year in charge at Stamford Bridge.

Spurs, in contrast, have been a shadow of their former selves in recent weeks. Against Norwich they lacked creativity, looked tired and the usually-reliable centre-back pairing of King and Kaboul were in disarray.

Redknapp's men have won just once in their last eight league games but they are buoyed by their recent 0-0 draw at Chelsea, where they were unlucky not to beat the Blues.

"I think the last time we played Chelsea it was probably a game that we could have won, so we'll go there with a lot of confidence," Nelsen said.

When quizzed about the fear of facing the likes of Juan Mata, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres, the New Zealand captain replied: "Well, they will be facing (Emmanuel) Adebayor, (Jermain) Defoe and (Louis) Saha, (Luka) Modric and (Rafael) van der Vaart.. We all see what they can do every day in training."

Norwich's 2-1 win, which came courtesy of goals from Anthony Pilkington and Elliott Bennett, was played out amid a tense atmosphere that seemed to transmit to the players.

Gareth Bale was the only real attacking threat for the hosts, although Defoe's first-half equaliser was a wonderful goal that will give the England striker a much-needed boost.

Nelsen admits the defeat was hard to take but insists the Spurs squad do have the nerve to see out the campaign and secure Champions League qualification.

"Obviously we're extremely disappointed, we really wanted to win the Norwich game," he added.

"The results haven't been great, but we have been playing well and sometimes you just don't get the rub of the green.

"I don't think we were nervous. There is a lot of experience in our team so that's not an issue.

"It's in our own hands. We've got five games left and we're not worried about what any of the other clubs do.

"We just have to take care of our business ourselves, and focus on what we need to do.

"We're motivated, we're focused and we know what we've got to do."