Arsenal great Paul Merson is backing Tottenham Hotspur to cope up with the absence of their star player Harry Kane in the upcoming home clash against Southampton.

The England international suffered an ankle injury in last weekend's FA Cup win over Millwall and is expected to spend a considerable amount of time on the sidelines.

However, Merson thinks that Mauricio Pochettino's side will come out with a 3-1 win in the game at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

He writes for Sky Sports: "I think Tottenham will be OK without Harry Kane for one or two games, but over a longer sequence of games, I do not think it will be so good. And they need to win this football match in order to cement top four, so if they do not win this game and Kane is also out, I do not see them winning too many other football matches in my opinion.

"So, it is a must-win game for them, but I think they will do a job without him for one, two or three games. But not for the next eight or nine games if he is out for that long.

"But I am going to just go for Tottenham, because at the moment they are playing some very good football, so I am going to go 3-1 to Tottenham."