- Tottenham Hotspur host West Bromwich Albion at 3pm on Saturday
- Spurs have only won two of their last seven homes games against the Baggies
- But Paul Merson and Mark Lawrenson expect Tottenham to win to nil
- The North London club are heavily odds-on with bookmakers 888sport
- Mauricio Pochettino may start with Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-min in his XI
Tottenham Hotspur take on their bogey team on Saturday when West Bromwich Albion come to Wembley.
Spurs thrashed the Baggies 4-0 at White Hart Lane last season, but that was just their second victory in seven homes games against the Black Country side.
West Brom travel to North London in awful form, having gone 11 games without a win since August – a run of results that led to Tony Pulis being sacked last weekend.
Teams often bounce back with an improved performance after getting rid of their manager, working harder in an attempt to impress their new boss.
But working harder at Wembley may not do West Brom much good. Their best chance of success is by staying disciplined and frustrating their hosts, rather than running themselves into the ground, which is only likely to result in creating defensive gaps for Spurs to exploit.
Predictions
Paul Merson expects Spurs to run riot. The Sky Sports pundit is predicting a 3-0 Spurs win.
He explained: “They’ll be miles too strong for West Brom.”
Mark Lawrenson also expects Tottenham to win without conceding.
The BBC Sport tipster, who is going for a 2-0 Spurs victory, said: “I think they will win this one pretty comfortably.”
Odds
Bookies 888sport make Spurs heavy favourites, pricing Mauricio Pochettino’s side up at 2/9, with West Brom 14/1 long shots.
Spurs are also odds-on (4/6) to win with a one-goal handicap, while Harry Kane is as short as 12/25 to score anytime, having bagged a hat-trick in this fixture last season.
Likely starting XIs
Kane didn’t look fully fit in last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat by Arsenal, but Pochettino resisted the urge to rest him in midweek when he scored his sixth goal in five Champions League games to help Spurs beat Dortmund 2-1.
Kane will start up front, with Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen likely to make the first XI too.
Son Heung-min staked a claim for starting berth with a fine display in Dortmund and, with his side likely to dominate possession at Wembley, Pochettino may well be able to justify dropping Alli or Eriksen into central midfield to accommodate another goal threat.
Indeed, Whoscored suggest that Spurs will line-up with all four of their main attacking stars in a 3-4-1-2 system.
