Hughes: Tottenham can catch Leicester

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has backed Tottenham to pip Leicester City to the Premier League title after his team's 4-0 defeat at the hands of Spurs on Monday.

Harry Kane and Dele Alli scored a brace each to help Tottenham to a comfortable win at the Britannia Stadium, and Hughes was thoroughly impressed with their opponents' performance as they neared Leicester to five points in the table.

"I have to say I was very impressed with Tottenham. We played them earlier in the season and they weren't at that level. You wouldn't bet against them catching Leicester on the basis of that performance," Hughes told reporters.

"They have got the edge of going for the Premier League and have that bite which maybe, if we are being honest, we didn't have in our play. 

"We know we can do better against opposition like that and were a bit down on what we needed to do to match them.

"Defensively, we were found wanting. We found it very difficult to impose ourselves technically and physically.

"We need to pick ourselves up and understand what you need to do. We've got another difficult game at the weekend away against Manchester City away and we need to very quickly understand what's required and what we need to do to remain in games and get that platform to get a positive result."

Stoke are ninth in the table following this weekend's results with 47 points from 34 games.

They meet Manchester City, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and West Ham in their remaining games.