Tottenham Hotspur Match Preview
After beating Sheffield United on Monday night, West Ham United are back in Stratford this afternoon. They face a London derby as José Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur are the visitors.
When these two sides met for the reverse fixture back in October, the Hammers produced a remarkable comeback inside the last eight minutes to claim an unlikely point, having been 3-0 behind. They will be hoping to get off to a much better start this time around.
West Ham briefly moved into the top four following the victory over the Blades, but after Chelsea’s triumph against Newcastle United later that evening, they dropped a place and currently occupy fifth position in the Premier League table but are aware that they could slip, depending on the weekends other results.
This may be a good time for the Irons to be playing Spurs, as the visitors haven’t achieved a top-flight win since beating newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion on 7 February, whereas the hosts have only lost once since 21 December.
Given that Mourinho’s men have had very little time to prepare ahead of the game as they were last in action on Thursday against Austrian side Wolfsberger AC in the UEFA Europa League, you would think that the momentum would be with the home side here.
Manuel Lanzini scored the equaliser in the dramatic draw earlier this season and having been handed a start on Monday, he will be hoping to retain his place, although Saïd Benrahma may be restored to the starting line-up.
Issa Diop started against Chris Wilder’s men six days ago while also adding his name to the scoresheet. With Angelo Ogbonna continuing to recover from an ankle injury, the Frenchman is set to once again play alongside Craig Dawson.
David Moyes must also decide whether to stick with Ben Johnson or bring Pablo Fornals back into contention. A boost for the Irons is that the Scotsman may be able to call upon Michail Antonio after the former Nottingham Forest man missed the last two games. Andriy Yarmolenko should be available if the Hammers’ boss decides to use him.
The match kicks off at midday with live coverage being screened by Sky Sports from 11am. The referee is Craig Pawson.