West Ham Vs Spurs Preview

We all know what tends to happen in this fixture. It’s their cup final, they’re going to be massively up for it. It will be a really tough game, and I have a feeling it won’t be pretty either.

West Ham come into this game off the back of their first win of the season at Villa Park. They looked solid defensively and kept Villa at arm’s length throughout.

Pablo Fornals was the man that made the breakthrough for the Hammers, with a deflected effort soaring past Emi Martinez. In front of him, West Ham played their new signing, Gianluca Scamacca, pairing up with Jarrod Bowen, who we all know is a real threat. Bowen has blistering pace, matched with with good strength to hold the ball up, and obviously great quality in the final third. We can’t afford any lapses in concentration, because West Ham will punish us. Scamacca will for sure add a presence in the box, much like Antonio, perhaps with a more technical element to his play. Against Villa, he didn’t really have the service he would have liked, so crosses into the box must be limited by the players who are found defending in the wide channels.

New statement signing, Lucas Paqueta, could well feature alongside Declan Rice, which would be a big boost to the Hammers. The Brazilian came from Lyon for a fee of £38m, and would be a great addition to their already powerful midfield. The Hammers also have several other arrows in their quiver, being able to bring on the dangerous Said Benrahma, or the physical Michail Antonio, is just two of the other possible dangers to the Spurs defence.

There is no doubt that the crowd will be creating a good atmosphere, so we need to deal with that. I’d imagine it will be a feisty encounter, with a lot riding on every tackle, because after all, it is a London Derby.

As for Conte’s Lilywhites, I would like to see a fast start, where we attack West Ham from the get go. If we give them something to protect, that’s when the game starts to crawl away from us. Once West Ham sit in, they are very capable of not letting the opposition have a sniff, as seen in this fixture last season under Nuno. This means, it is also important that we keep the ball well. The defence need to be comfortable in possession, to have the patience to find a breakthrough.

Here is the team news for tonight:

Oliver Skipp could be in the squad to face West Ham, same applies to Cristian Romero. Bryan Gil and Lucas Moura remain out injured, and Rodrigo Bentancur will most likely miss out due to the head injury he picked up at Forest last week.

My Predicted XI:

Lloris, Sessegnon, Davies, Dier, Sanchez, Emerson, Højbjerg, Bissouma, Son, Kane, Kulusevski.

I’m anticipating Yves Bissouma to be handed his first premier league start, due to Rodrigo Bentancur bring ruled out with concussion. I expect Perisic to be rested, and Sess to come in for him. Despite recent performances, I reckon Richarlison will have to wait for his first Spurs start in the Premier League. However, I expect him to make a cameo at some point in the game, regardless of the score line.

This will be an interesting one, as it always is. You simply never know with this fixture, it’s such a tough one to call. Let’s wait and see what happens, COYS!