Tottenham Hotspur legend Jermain Defoe has backed his former side to secure a shock victory at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening, expressing quiet confidence that the club can turn around their difficult start to the season.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star Sport ahead of the London derby, Defoe highlighted the returns of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski as potentially decisive factors in helping Spurs claim only their second league win at Chelsea in two decades.
Defoe Confident Despite Tough Test
"Chelsea's a tough game, but you never know. I believe we can go there and win," Defoe said. The former England forward, who scored 143 goals for Tottenham during 11 years at the club, including eight against Chelsea, pointed to recent performances as reason for optimism.
"I was at the game the other night against Coventry, and the performance again was good," he added. "They got the result, and I think now hopefully they're going to go on a run. Kulusevski's back, you've got Maddison back, who's looking sharp. So yeah, I think it'll be good."
Positive Signs Despite Poor Results
Despite Tottenham's struggles, Defoe insisted there had been plenty of positives to take from their performances this season, backing manager Roberto De Zerbi to turn things around after two consecutive 17th place finishes.
"The thing is, in football, when you play, in any sport really, on reflection, if there's a lot of positives that you can take out of performances, then that's a good thing. But then if there's no positives, you think, 'OK, where do we go?'" he explained. "So when I look at Tottenham and I look at some of the games, in terms of performance, the performances have been good, but just not the results. I've always said when you have good performances, eventually you get results."
Not a Must-Win, but a Performance Needed
Asked whether Spurs required all three points to maintain momentum, Defoe replied: "No, it's not a must-win. What you want is a performance. because Chelsea's a tough game, but you never know. We can go there and win."
Tottenham's clash away against London rivals Chelsea kicks off at 5.30pm on Saturday, October 24. Going into the fixture, Xabi Alonso's Chelsea were fourth in the Premier League table, with Tottenham down in 16th.
