Tottenham v Leicester: Spurs to strike back in top four race
After two poor results, Paul Higham says Tottenham can get their mojo back with a win over weary Leicester.
Spurs need to strike back in top four race
Does anybody want to finish fourth? Arsenal lost three in a row to give everyone else a chance, but while they then beat Man Utd and Chelsea, the likes of Spurs, United, West Ham and Wolves combined for just two points between them in their next two games.
You don't want to bust out the old 'Spursy' accusations again, but if such a thing does exist then hammering West Ham, Newcastle and Villa by a combined 12-2, followed by losing at home to Brighton and drawing at Brentford would be a prime example.
Antonio Conte's men are now two points behind the Gunners heading into Sunday, when they'll both hope to take advantage of teams who played in Europe on Thursday.
Spurs have a good record against Leicester to fall back on, winning seven of the last 10 league meetings, and can also take confidence from the reverse fixture, which was one of the best moments of their season.
Trailing 2-1 heading into stoppage time, Steven Bergwijn scored in the 95th and 97th minutes to seal the most dramatic of 3-2 wins.
Will Foxes feel the pace?
Brendan Rodgers' side are still right in their Europa Conference League semi-final after a 1-1 draw with Roma on Thursday night, but they may have to make changes to keep the team fresh for this contest.
Winning the Conference League is the only route back into Europe for the Foxes after defeat against Newcastle and draws with Everton and Aston Villa dropped them even further out of contention.
It's just one win in 11 away games in the Premier League for Leicester, with their defence being the big issue as they've kept just one clean sheet in 23 league road trips.
That leaky defence doesn't bode well given Leicester have conceded more goals against Spurs than anyone else since their return to the Premier League in 2014 - with the Foxes letting in 26 during that time.
Spurs backed to get their mojo back
It was quite the shift from a free-scoring Spurs in three emphatic wins to the shot-shy side that failed to even get an effort in on target in their last two outings.
Opta have never recorded a side having three successive games with no shots on target, and the bookies fancy that to change as Spurs are hefty 1.4 favourites for the win on Sunday.
Leicester are 7.0 as they effectively have nothing to play for and had that big game against Roma during the week while Spurs had their feet up.
The draw is 4.6 but Spurs have only had one home stalemate this season.
We're all expecting goals to flow here given how Leicester struggle defensively, but they have scored in eight of their last nine away games.
Over 2.5 goals is 1.6 as a result, with both teams to score priced at 1.8.
Son to shine again after mini-slump
Heung-min Son has missed out in the last two games but he scored six in three before then and has 17 goals this season in the league - with one more needed to secure his highest return in a Premier League campaign.
Son is 2.1 to score anytime and behind only Harry Kane, who has gone five games without a goal, in the market as the 1.7 favourite.
Kane has scored 18 goals in 17 games against Leicester, with his 16 Premier League goals against them being more than anyone has ever scored against one team bar Alan Shearer's 20 against Leeds.
In-play bettors should hope for Leicester to take the lead and then back against them as they've dropped 19 points from winning positions this season. That's a huge worry for Rodgers but could be profitable for us.
This one could end up a lot simpler than it looks on face value, with Leicester surely making changes and having other things on their minds but Spurs badly needing the result.
It should be a winning celebration to mark Conte's 100th game in the Premier League as a manager.
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