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Lets get physical! West Ham host Tottenham in London Derby

ByAdam Smith|
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 25: Angelo Ogbonna of West Ham United (r) scores his side's third goal during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium on October 25, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 25: Angelo Ogbonna of West Ham United (r) scores his side's third goal during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium on October 25, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

West Ham have their first London Derby featuring cross-London rivals lined up coming out of the international break. With injuries appearing on both sides, West Ham will need to adopt a physical, fast-paced style of play to widdle away at the depleted and recovering Tottenham team.

This match will feature two teams with a few limping players. For West Ham, Arnautovic has been struggling with a knee injury, and both Snodgrass and Masuaku have had ankle issue on international duty. Tottenham have Dele Alli and Danny Rose both likely to miss the match while Christian Eriksen and Moussa Dembele are returning for match duty after both missing games with injuries.

West Ham will need to push Eriksen and Dembele early and often to not only try and gas out the recovering players but unsettle them from their possession-heavy game. Both Eriksen and Dembele are creative midfield players. Dembele is more reserved and can dictate play from a deeper position in the middle of the pitch, while Eriksen can join in the attack with ease and bend a long shot into dangerous areas.

It will fall on West Ham’s midfield three, Declan Rice, Pedro Obiang, and Mark Noble, to bring the pressure and make like difficult for these two sparkplug type players. Tottenham thrive on attacking football with quick build up, pressuring the midfield and wasting a challenge or two on the Tottenham midfielders can set the pace for a tough game for the Spurs.

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The midfield will be where the battle happens in this game, and any chance to attack look for Spurs to use Heung-min Son’s creativity and Lucas Moura’s pace on the wings to supply the ball to Harry Kane. The Tottenham striker is in fine form coming off of a two-assist performance against Spain, where he set up both wingers (Rashford and Sterling) for goals. Moura and Son are integral in their drifting roles that support Kane’s striker position.

West Ham will need to bring the challenges and tackles early and often on the pitch, but will also need to implement similar game plans to that of the Chelsea and Machester United matches: hold the ball.

West Ham are implementing the high line to force turnovers and are actually playing with more possession than they are used to. It’s uncomfortable at times for a team that is so used to counter-attacking football, but if West Ham can restrict how long Tottenham have the ball for, they’ll certainly last longer in this match.

Crucial in this task are four players: Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko, Marko Arnautovic, and Pedro Obiang.

The front three are pretty self-explanatory; Anderson will need to hold up possession with his speed and dribbles and will also be required to track back and recovery possession like he has been all season.

Yarmolenko has less responsibility but needs to relieve pressure off the midfield by at least feigning interest in tracking back and by being a passing option off the wing.

Arnautovic just needs to be himself – be physical when you have the ball, pressure the defenders and keeper to force errors, and involve the wingers and midfielders when looking to attack.

Obiang is a bit off an odd person to single out here but it’s for good reason. Obiang was more advanced in his positioning opposed to Rice and Noble in West Ham’s win over Everton. He set up the first goal of the match playing midfield give-and-go with Arnautovic, and again directly assisted Arnie on his own goal later in the match. Obiang is an underrated player and can certainly help bring the noise in attack.

It should be a good game as both teams are desperate for points – for West Ham the points are needed to assert themselves as an elite team, and for Spurs the points are needed for a title race. If West Ham can bring the physicality to the midfield and hold onto possession it could be three massive points and a derby win going to East London.