Paul Merson on whether Spurs can bounce back against Cardiff

Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has given his prediction on who he thinks will win the match between Cardiff City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Tottenham travel to Wales tomorrow to take part in their first Premier League game of 2019 and will be looking to put behind the disappointing 3-1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side already find themselves nine points behind league leaders Liverpool and a defeat at the Cardiff City Stadium could prove to be catastrophic in their slim hopes of mounting a title challenge.

The former Arsenal midfielder has tipped Tottenham to win comfortably to banish the Wolves result.

Spurs will be once again without the services of Victor Wanyama, Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele, Eric Dier and Erik Lamela who are all sidelined.

The club will be once again looking to star man Harry Kane to start the year with a bang, Kane has been involved in six goals in his last two Premier League games on New Year’s Day (4 goals, 2 assists); only two players – Andy Cole and Steven Gerrard (5) – have scored more goals on January 1st in the Premier League than Kane’s four.

Merson told Sky Sports: “The pressure’s off Tottenham now, and they’ll be like the Harlem Globetrotters. I can’t see anything but an away win. You can go to Liverpool and get beat, or other places, but not at home by Wolves.

“They ripped Everton up, they smashed Bournemouth at home. But then the pressure was on, now it’s off – they could be kicking themselves if Liverpool get beaten on Thursday, they could have been three points behind.

“Cardiff have been unbelievable. To do what they did after getting rinsed by Manchester United, to come back with two clean sheets and a 1-0 at Leicester, you’ve got to credit the manager, he’s so underrated. It’s phenomenal.

“They’re out of the bottom three after 20 games which is a feat in itself, but they’ve got to keep on grinding away which takes its toll as the season goes on.

“Prediction: 1-4.”

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