West Ham and Manuel Pellegrini will be looking to bounce back from their recent awful run of form with a win against their noisy neighbors. There is a huge amount of negativity around the club at the moment and a victory on Saturday would reduce this somewhat.
Therefore I have come up with 3 reasons why West Ham can defeat Tottenham Hotspur this Saturday.
1. Tottenham’s awful form
Tottenham are similar to West Ham coming into Saturday’s game in that they to are in shocking form. They haven’t won in the Premier League since 28th September having recently endured draws against Watford, Sheffield United and Everton while loosing to the likes of Brighton and Newcastle this season.
They currently sit 14th in the league, only one point ahead of 16th placed West Ham. As a result of this Mauricio Pochettino has been sacked by Spurs. This certainly plays into West Ham’s hands as Spurs will most likely be managerless on Saturday which can affect the dressing room negatively.
Their bad form is due to a number of things such as the poor depth and quality at full-back, a number of new faces that have needed bedding into the side, Harry Kane dropping into deeper positions in games meaning he gets fewer shots off and is consequently less deadly and most importantly the fact that lots of their players want to leave (Eriksen, Vertonghen, Rose, Alderweireld most notably).
Therefore, Pellegrini’s men will feel that they can come away with something from Saturday due to the avalanche of issues currently crippling Tottenham Hotspur.
2. It’s Tottenham
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When the Irons play Tottenham there is always a switch that seems to turn on in the players’ minds that makes them run that bit faster or get more stuck in and the performances have historically been positive even if West Ham are stuck in a patch of shocking form.
Take last season for example – the Hammers had nothing to play for; 7th was out of the question and a top-half finish was pretty much confirmed, contrastingly Tottenham were still battling Arsenal for Champions League football and progressing nicely in the Champions League.
However, despite Tottenham being in very good form and the Hammers being in very average form, West Ham still managed to come away with a well-deserved win and clean sheet. The Irons could, therefore, propel themselves out of bad form on Saturday through the sheer passion and desire to win that is present while playing Tottenham. The fans will also be behind them more than ever and could push West Ham over the line.
In the last 16 Premier League meetings, the Irons have won 6 and Tottenham have won 7 with there being just 2 draws (Premier League Website), can West Ham get fired up for this heated rivalry and win despite their bad form?
3. A revitalized West Ham
West Ham haven’t won since the 22nd September and have lost to the likes of Newcastle, Burnley, and Everton recently. Many fans have been calling for Pellegrini’s head but the board have stuck with him for the meantime, which could all change if results don’t start going his way.
Pellegrini has had a 2-week international break to change the mindset in the dressing room and work out what has been going wrong, hopefully, the fans should, therefore, see a more positive performance at the very least.
Maybe Pellegrini has realized that Sebastien Haller is more competent with a strike partner and that Ogbonna should be at the heart of the defense after some good performances earlier on in the season. Changes in tactics and personnel like this could restart the Hammers’ season and get a positive result against Tottenham.
On top of this, we could see Michail Antonio on Saturday as the winger is back from a 2-month injury, this could strike fear into Tottenham’s out of form defense and improve West Ham’s chances.