Spurs v Leicester - OPTA Preview

The late goal from Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink last weekend could prove to be the final nail in the coffin for Leicester City. While it's too early to write them off completely the Foxes are eight points adrift of safety with just 13 games remaining - and even their nearest fellow strugglers Derby County looked revitalised at the weekend, after John Gregory inspired them to a win over City's opponents this Saturday, Tottenham.

Like Leicester, Spurs are on a poor run of form, one that threatens to ruin much of Tottenham's good work in the Premiership. Glenn Hoddle's side at least have the League Cup Final to look forward to but they have lost five of their last eight in the league and picked up just a solitary victory in that time, losing touch with the sides above them.

Still, it's not as bad a run as Leicester's. City are without a win in their last 10 Premiership ties and have won just twice in 17 league matches under Dave Bassett.

Jamie Scowcroft at least provided a chink of light in an otherwise dark and depressing season with two goals against Chelsea last weekend. The former Ipswich hitman has had more shots on target than any other Leicester player this season despite missing large chunks of the season early on, and with four goals now to his name he becomes City's top scorer in the league.

Worryingly for the Foxes though they have failed to score nine out of 13 times on the road this season and have yet to score in London in the 2001-02 Premiership. With Ade Akinbiyi having jumped the sinking ship, Scowcroft will be even more important for the remainder of their campaign.

But they will be encouraged by Tottenham's rocky defensive record at White Hart Lane. Only Arsenal, Bolton and Leicester themselves have shipped more goals at home in the Premiership than Spurs, who have kept just two clean sheets on their own turf in their last 11 fixtures there and have shipped 19 goals in the process.

And Spurs have hardly sparkled in attack - they have scored just six goals in eight Premiership matches. Hoddle's men have converted just 7% of their chances into goals since Boxing Day, which is well shy of their much more acceptable 12% goals-to-shots ratio for the season as a whole.

Opta's evidence over the course of the campaign though would suggest that Tottenham will take all three points from this match. Spurs have scored more than twice as many goals as Leicester and conceded 10 fewer. Hoddle's men have also been far more comfortable on the ball, completing a significantly higher ratio of their passes than Bassett's battlers, and should see plenty of the ball, thus limiting the visitors' chances of creating openings.

However, this could be a difficult match to predict. The last seven meetings between these two sides have seen three Tottenham wins and four for the Foxes - all of these coming in the league. Indeed Leicester seem to save some of their best performances for Spurs, with City winning three and drawing one of their last five matches at the Lane. They may be worth a flutter at 11/2 with surreysports.co.uk for an unexpected away win, especially with Bassett's side likely to be scrapping for their Premiership lives from now on in.

Tim Wheal