Spurs told ‘unhinged’ Leeds create real jeopardy as West Ham boss pins hopes on relegation reverse | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur have been warned that Leeds United pose a serious threat to their quest to remain in the Premier League and will absolutely not lie down when they travel to the capital for a pivotal clash for Roberto De Zerbi’s side on Monday evening.

Daniel Farke’s side confirmed their place in the Premier League on Sunday without even kicking a ball after West Ham’s controversial 1-0 defeat to Arsenal – and you can read 16 conclusions on the game here – left the Hammers marooned in the bottom three.

Tottenham can now rub serious salt into those wounds on Monday night when they host Leeds at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with a victory allowing Spurs to move four points clear of the drop zone with two games left to play.

However, Alan Pardew has told talkSPORT that he thinks Leeds will prove a dangerous animal and playing without pressure could actually aid the West Yorkshire side.

“The psychological factor here has helped Leeds,” Pardew said.

“It has helped Spurs, but it has helped Leeds more because they can literally now say we are Premier League players, all our finances are in place for next year, and let’s go and have a game.

“They could play with real freedom, unhinged by the pressure that comes from maybe getting relegated.

“So that does put a little bit of jeopardy on that game.”

If Pardew reckons Leeds are unhinged, then Jeff Stelling has warned Spurs why Farke’s side will not simply roll over and let their bellies be tickled by Spurs.

“I don’t know why, but I look at the Leeds squad, and they don’t strike me as a squad that will down tools just because they are safe.”

Fellow pundit, Gabby Agbonlahor, also thinks Leeds will be motivated by the prospect of moving up the table, with games against Spurs, Brighton and West Ham still to come.

“There’s no reason why they can’t catch Newcastle in 13th place, only three points in it with two games to go. Two winnable games as well for Leeds.”

Nuno makes relegation claim as Shearer says who will face relegation

With Monday’s game also having a sizeable bearing on West Ham’s prospects of staying up, their manager Nuno Espirito Santo is refusing to hit the panic button after they were denied a late equaliser and a precious point against Arsenal in the battle to beat the drop.

Insisting it’s not yet over for the Hammers and banking on more twists to come, Nuno admitted to Sky Sports that his players and staff will be keeping a close watch on developments across the capital: “We watch every game – let’s see what happens.

“Time to rest and prepare well for Newcastle.

“Anything can happen.”

Alan Shearer, however, fears the writing is on the wall for West Ham United and thinks it will be they who will join Wolves and Burnley in the Championship next season, having explained the ‘brilliant’ decision which changed it all for Spurs.

Speaking to Chris Cowlin, Shearer said: “Leeds are going to play a huge part in who gets relegated, because they play both Spurs and West Ham.

“It’s fascinating, but I think with what I saw from Spurs last week, they may just have enough now to stay up.

“And I guess with the energy that they showed the other day, I think they’ll have enough to beat Leeds at home. Spurs to win.”

Shearer also thinks Spurs are a different side now to the one that was hurtling towards disaster under Igor Tudor.

“Roberto De Zerbi has got a shift out of those players, and you didn’t see any of that six or seven weeks ago,” Shearer added.

“It looks like a brilliant move now to bring De Zerbi in when they did, that’s the reason why they did it then, it was to get something different out of the players that they had not been showing, and it looks as if he’s getting that difference now, which they’ve not had for large parts of this season, or for any of the season.”