Tottenham Hotspur Match Preview

West Ham United have not yet tasted victory in a London derby this season and they will be desperately hoping to change that particular statistic this afternoon when Tottenham Hotspur arrive for the “big one” in Stratford this afternoon.

Like Crystal Palace and Everton, when the fixtures for the current campaign were published in June, it was unknown who would succeed José Mourinho but after a thorough selection process, the club’s hierarchy had decided that former Wolverhampton Wanderers Head-Coach Nuno Espírito Santo was the man to replace the Portuguese.

The Irons will be wanting to improve their top-flight form in front of their own fans, as you have to go back to August 23 for their only league success in East London against Leicester City. What an occasion it would be if they could claim all the points here.

Both teams were in action three days ago with Spurs losing their UEFA Europa Conference match at Dutch side Vitesse. The Hammers will hope they are not victims of a backlash.

David Moyes wisely opted to rest Michail Antonio for last Thursday’s UEFA Europa League win over KRC Genk but the former Nottingham Forest man will be back in contention here with Nikola Vlašić set to be named on the bench.

Vladimír Coufal is still recovering from his groin problem so Ben Johnson will retain his place for the third match running.

The match is a 2pm kick-off and live coverage is being screened by Sky Sports from 1pm. The referee is Paul Tierney.