Pundits: Spurs to stumble

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Pundits: Spurs to stumble .. (March 2 2016)

The Soccer Saturday pundits are expecting West Ham to inflict a blow to Tottenham's title hopes in Wednesday night's London derby.

Spurs' title odds are currently the shortest they've been in Premier League history as bookmakers give them a 6/4 chance with 11 games to go.

Tottenham pulled three points clear of third-place Arsenal on Sunday, coming from behind to beat Swansea 2-1, while their North London neighbours lost 3-2 at Manchester United.

However, the Soccer Saturday panel are all backing Spurs to drop points at Upton Park in their Sky Bet tips and expect the Gunners to reduce the gap with a victory over Swansea at the Emirates.

Charlie Nicholas told Sky Sports: "West Ham would love nothing more than to dent Tottenham's title aspirations and they will be greeted by a really aggressive atmosphere in east London.

"Their players thrive on these big games, as they have shown with victories at Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, and then again when Chelsea came to visit.

"These are the types of matches where you really need to compete physically and while Pochettino's side have shown they can do that, I still worry about them in the final 15 to 20 minutes of games.

"I'm expecting a lot of tension and plenty of goals and I wouldn't be surprised to see things boil over and somebody being sent off."

Paul Merson is backing a 1-1 draw in his midweek predictions and Matt Le Tissier is going a step further in tipping the Hammers to cause an upset.

The Southampton legend said: "The pressure is starting to crank up a little bit now and with 11 games to go you do start seeing your objectives a bit clearer.

"The worrying thing for Spurs is that Pochettino's Southampton side tended to tail off at the end of it, and I'm not sure if that was because of the way he demanded so much from his players."

However, Nicholas admits Spurs have got themselves into such a strong position that it is not essential for them to beat both the Hammers and Arsenal this week.

He added: "In a strange way they can almost afford a slip up in one of their upcoming London derbies with the position they're in and Leicester surely going to drop points at some stage.

"My concern about both Leicester and Spurs was the way they were relying on the same players so much but fair play to Pochettino and Ranieri, they made changes that won them games at the weekend."