Tottenham Hotspur Match Preview

It would be fair to say that Graham Potter has not won too many home games since he took charge of West Ham United back on 9 January. Over the next two weeks he has the chance to improve on that record, as the Hammers face back-to-back home games, starting with the visit of Tottenham Hotspur in today’s early evening kick-off.

After a 5-1 defeat by Chelsea in their last home game back on 22 August, the team will surely get themselves up for this one, especially after the 3-0 triumph against Nottingham Forest at The City Ground before the international break.

When this fixture was last played back on 4 May, Potter was the new face in the dugouts but now, the visitors are under new management with former Brentford boss Thomas Frank having taken over from Ange Postecoglou.

After the victory over Nuno Espírito Santo’s men, the Irons briefly climbed to fifteenth in the Premier League table but due to other results that day, they later slipped a place.

Both teams had contrasting results last time out and whilst Potter’s men will want to build on that success against the Tricky Trees, their opponents will be keen to return to the sort of form that earned them successive wins at home to newly-promoted Burnley and away at Manchester City after a shock 1-0 defeat at home to AFC Bournemouth. Having said all of that though, one factor that might swing in favour of the visitors here is that they will have had one extra day’s preparation.

Soungoutou Magassa, Mateus Fernandes and Igor Julio could all make their home debuts, while there is a slight doubt over the fitness of striker Niclas Füllkrug, meaning that Callum Wilson may be in line to make his first start since his arrival in East London last month. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was dropped in favour of Kyle Walker-Peters for the Carabao Cup tie against Wolverhampton Wanderers and hasn’t featured since. He will however hope to regain his place here.

Crysencio Summerville made such an impact on the match in Nottingham last time out that he is likely to be involved again.

The transfer window in England may be closed but there has been movement amongst the club’s goalkeepers this week with Wes Foderingham moving to Cyprus to join Aris Limassol FC on a permanent deal. This meant that the Hammers had to find a quick solution so, they turned to a familiar face and Łukasz Fabiański has returned to Stratford for a second spell until the end of the current season.

The Pole is unlikely to feature in this encounter though, as Mads Hermansen is expected to retain his place in goal with Alphonse Areola on the bench.

Irons’ fans were angered when the news emerged that winger Mohammed Kudus chose to make the switch to Spurs over the summer and he will make his first return to East London here.

The match kicks off at 5:30pm and for the fourth successive match, the Irons have been selected for live Sky Sports coverage. Build-up will begin at 5pm. The referee is Jarred Gillett.