Tottenham trip ‘perfect’ for West Ham, says Mauro Zarate

Tottenham come into this one off the back of their 1-1 draw against Arsenal before the global break. “They always want us to win against Tottenham and we will do our best to win the match”. This season, West Ham have earned the most reds (four) and Spurs the most yellow cards (27). Indeed the Hammers are sixth in the table and level on points with Tottenham ahead of their derby clash. The Hammers often raise their game against the league’s top team and they will be keen to show they don’t rely on one man. It promises to be a fascinating encounter between two sides evenly matched.

Recent results against West Ham, for Tottenham managers, have been telling indicators of the success of their respective regimes.

This is a huge game for both sides as they are in great form.

They miss Dimitri Payet, their talisman, who has been instrumental for them this term, but who picked up a serious injury earlier this month. Against a side without Dimitri Payet, Spurs will be less wary of the counter attack, allowing their own attacking players more freedom. Nacer Chadli and Alex Pritchard are out, while Moussa Dembele, Nabil Bentaleb and Clinton N’Jie are doubts.

Tottenham will hope that the raft of players that were off on worldwide duty in the week are not too jaded, though in the case of the players that started with England on Tuesday night a number of first teamers should be full of confidence.

“To be without him again is a massive blow”.

West Ham could also be without six players.

Provisional squad: Adrian, Randolph, Tomkins, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Hendrie, Jenkinson, O’Brien, Oxford, Noble, Obiang, Kouyate, Cullen, Sakho, Song, Antonio, Moses, Lanzini, Zarate, Valencia, Carroll, Jelavic. At home three games have had under 2.5 goals (all when Tottenham have kept a clean sheet) and three have gone over (all when the visitors scored), which indicates that West Ham’s ability to score without Payet will be a crucial factor.

Key Stat: Tottenham are unbeaten in their last 11 outings.

Similar luck was displayed as Spurs came back from two goals down to salvage a draw in February, thanks to the man of the moment Harry Kane, who won the penalty from which he scored the rebound to equalise in the 95th minute.