EXCLUSIVE Tottenham and England legend Jermain Defoe spoke to Daily Star Sport ahead of Spurs' crunch clash with Chelsea, and told fans that he's quietly confident

Tottenham legend Jermain Defoe is backing Spurs to stop the rot and turn around their horror start to the season with a win at Stamford Bridge. The two sides clash in an appetising London derby on Saturday evening.

The former England forward told Daily Star Sport that he has seen enough from his former side this season to know that things will get better, highlighting two players who he thinks will be crucial in improving the fortunes of the North London side.

Speaking ahead of Spurs' crunch clash with Chelsea, Defoe said: "Chelsea's a tough game, but you never know. I believe we can go there and win."The former Spurs striker added that the returns of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski could be enough to help Spurs achieve only their second Stamford Bridge victory in two decades.

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He said: "I was at the game the other night against Coventry, and the performance again was good.

"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."

Despite Tottenham's struggles, Defoe insisted there had been plenty of positives to take from their performances this season, and is backing manager Roberto De Zerbi to turn things around after two consecutive 17th place finishes.

He explained: "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?'

"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."

Defoe, who bagged 143 goals for Tottenham during 11 years at the club including eight against the Blues, says that despite feeling quietly confident, fans shouldn't expect the world against Chelsea.

Asked if Spurs required all three points to keep momentum going, 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.