ALL eyes on the Britannia on Monday night as Spurs bid to get closer to Leicester in the title race. Chris Graham (@chrisgraham79) takes a look at the odds.
Stoke v Tottenham | Monday 20:00 | Sky Sports 1
Leicester's controversial draw with West Ham on Sunday has given Tottenham the chance to cut the gap to five points at the top of the Premier League. To do that they must beat Stoke on Monday night and from my point of view that will be no easy task.
Stoke lie 9th in the table and with turbo-charged Liverpool and Southampton directly ahead of them that might be as high as the Potters can finish this season.
Mark Hughes is always keen to try and build and improve year on year but with this being such an odd campaign they've found it hard to find vast improvement like Leicester and West Ham have despite their summer purchases.
It's certainly not been a bad season at all for Stoke but there must be a lot of envy kicking about when they look at what Leicester have achieved this season.
Mark Hughes' side found it very tough last week at Liverpool but will be hoping for a sounder performance here in front of their own fans in the intimidating atmosphere of the Britannia.
Truth be told it looks less intimidating than usual when you look at Stoke's recent home record. A 2-2 draw with Swansea followed a loss to Southampton and before that they squeezed past struggling Newcastle and Aston Villa by just a goal.
With just one win in their last five Premier League matches I think it's fair to assume Stoke are finding it hard to remain as switched on as usual as another season comes to an end in the safe confines of mid-table. The Potters certainly seem a wee bit off the level they reached at the end of last year when they beat both Manchester clubs and Chelsea.
Tottenham continue to kick on as they search for their first top-flight title since the early-1960's. It's nine wins out of 12 for the North London club and last week's 3-0 win over Manchester United was as stunning as it was sudden.
They've won four of their last six away league matches and only slipped up against West Ham (were unbeaten in eight months at home) and at Anfield against a Liverpool side brimming with confidence just now.
On all known current form Tottenham should be too strong for this shaky Stoke side but I'm reluctant to get involved at 8/11. A lot has changed in a year of course but Spurs were 6/4 to win at this ground last season and got humped 3-0.
Despite being one of the lowest scorers in the league Stoke's last five games have seen both teams score and that's an angle that entices me here.
6th February was the last time Stoke failed to score while for Spurs they've notched in 11 of their last 12 league matches and conceded in nine of their last 13 games.
Both Teams To Score appeals at 9/10 but instead I'll chuck a couple of Correct Scores into the fire and back a 2-1 Tottenham win at 8/1 and a 3-1 victory at 14/1.
Best Bets
Stoke v Tottenham – Tottenham to win 2-1 (8/1 Bet365)
Stoke v Tottenham – Tottenham to win 3-1 (14/1 Bet365)
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