It seems that West Ham players are waking up from the horrible nightmare that was the beginning of the season. Tottenham, on the other hand, needs to snap out from the depression caused by failing to beat the desperate Swansea at the home turf. So, who’s gonna come out as the winner? Read this preview to find out!
West Ham vs. Tottenham
Three-Way: 1: West Ham +509; X: +334 Draw; 2: Tottenham -143
Spread +1: West Ham -110; Tottenham +106
Total +2.5: Over -135; Under +131
WEST HAM
After a horrible start of the season, the Hammers have started showing their true quality. Two rounds ago, they won their first points, beating Huddersfield 2:0 at home. Last week, they played against West Brom, a match that ended 0:0. It’s fair to say that West Ham was the better team, with a higher percentage of ball possession and more goal attempts than WBA. Still, their attackers needed to do a much better job in order to break the opponent’s defense.
In fact, West Ham’s weakest link this season has been their attack, which is kind of surprising knowing that they have a number of extra-talented attackers – Chicharito, Andy Carroll, Marko Arnautovic, Antonio Martinez, Diafra Sakho, and so on. Unfortunately, all of the strikers, apart from Chicharito, are still goalless!
Another bad news is that West Ham has a couple of serious injury problems. Edimilson Fernandes, who has been one of their crucial midfielders this season, has gotten an ankle injury, so he’s definitely out of the squad. An even bigger worry is the knee injury of Manuel Lanzini. It seems that the injury is so severe that the playmaker might have to end his career, despite being 24 years old. Hopefully, that won’t be the case, but it’s certain that he won’t be able to play for at least a few more weeks.
Still, it seems that West Ham manager has plenty of available players to choose from for the clash with the Tottenham Spurs. Another thing that gives them hope is that although this game is a London derby, they play in front of their supporters at the Olympic Stadium.
West Ham is known as a side that’s great when it comes playing at home. The problem is that they had big problems with playing against stronger sides. For example, since the year has started, they lost to Man City, Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Leicester, despite playing at home. In fact, the only heavyweights that they managed to beat in 2017 at home turf were Chelsea and their next opponent, Tottenham.
The win over the Spurs happened this May when Tottenham was still in the title race. The final score was 1:0 for West Ham, with the only scorer in the match being Manuel Lanzini. In that match, West Ham let the opponent have the ball on their feet most of the time. The Hammers looked for their chances from the counterattacks, which certainly paid off.
Will they be able to pull off something similar? Well, I don’t think it’s going to be easy to stop Tottenham from scoring. Still, West Ham is even stronger than last season when it comes to defense. This summer, Pablo Zabaleta joined the club from Manchester City and has already established himself as one of West Ham’s key men.
Probably an even better signing was that of Joe Hart. The goalkeeper has joined the club this year, after playing last season in Italy, for Torino FC. There’s no doubt that the England national team’s first goalkeeper is one of the best goalies in the league. Beating him will not be an easy job for Tottenham.
TOTTENHAM
The last season’s runner-up, Tottenham might not be considered as one of the top favorites for the title in 2017/2018. After all, the two giants from Manchester have spent over half a billion on transfers this summer. Furthermore, Tottenham has sold one of the players who was crucial for their success in the 2016/2017 season – Kyle Walker.
They did bring a replacement – Serge Aurier, but he’s played only one match so far. The Spurs brought another defender during the summer transfer window. The signing of Davinson Sánchez cost them whopping 40 million Euros.
Speaking of the transfer, a few more players joined the club recently, although this club did not sign any big names. Actually, this is probably the main reason why the pundits are dismissing their chances of winning the Premier League trophy this season. Still, Tottenham does have a strong squad, with almost the same squad as in 2016/2017.
Furthermore, their key players have been playing very well lately. Harry Kane has already managed to put two goals to his name, same as Dele Ali. Eric Dier has also been very impressive, same as Christian Eriksen. The later has been the team’s main playmaker, making two goal assists so far and even putting one goal away.
Tottenham’s coach, Mauricio Pochettino, won’t be able to count on a couple of players (Wanyama, N’Koudou), but almost all of his crucial men are fit and ready for the match. The best thing is that all of them are in superb forms. Actually, this team lost only once so far (to Chelsea in the second round of the Premier League).
Still, the Spurs disappointed their fans a little bit last weekend, when they failed to beat Swansea at Wembley. The final score was 0:0, even though the Spurs had 26 goal attempts. They shot at Swansea’s goal 8 times but still failed to beat the goalie. That game shows that there’s a way to ruin Tottenham’s plans – total defense.
The Swans played ultra-defensively in that match, a proof of which is that they had zero shots towards Tottenham’s goal. I expect that Bilic will tell his players to do something similar. Still, West Ham plays on their turf, so the atmosphere might carry them away, which will leave room to Tottenham’s counterattacks.
When it comes to away matches, Tottenham is very much used to them. They’ve been playing home games at the Wembley Stadium because their new ground is still being constructed. You can say that the Spurs have been playing away games this whole season.
Winning the game against West Ham would mean a lot for Tottenham. They need to boost their confidence, shaken by the draw with Swansea. The reason is not just getting all 3 points, but also preparing themselves mentally for October. The next month, the Spurs will have to play some very challenging matches, both in the Premier League and in the Champions League. In the second half of October, they play against Real Madrid, Liverpool, and Manchester United!
West Ham vs. Tottenham – Match Prediction
Same as always, the clash between these two sides is very difficult to predict. In their previous 10 meetings, the Spurs won 4 times, West Ham was triumphant in 5 matches, while only one draw was played. Their matches are equally unpredictable when it comes to the number of goals. In most cases, though, the total number of goals did not exceed 2.
Perhaps betting on Under 2.5 goals seems as the best solution. I think that West Ham will focus on defending while leaving Tottenham the control of the match. Because of that, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game ended without any goals scored.
If I had to pick the match winner, I would go with the away side. Still, this is far from a safe bet, which is why my recommendation is to stick to the number of goals!
MY PICK: Under 2.5 Goals (+131)
Additional Pick: Tottenham to win (-143)
