West Ham vs. Tottenham
Venue: London Stadium
Kick off: 1PM
Tottenham Hotspur will be looking to close the gap on West Ham United and their other top-four rivals when they head to the London Stadium this afternoon.
Spurs have lost four of their last five Premier League matches – as many as in their previous 28 – and enter this game six points behind West Ham with a game in hand to play.
The Europa League can often prove a distraction for teams in Tottenham’s position, but Jose Mourinho will hope that Thursday’s win over Wolfsberger can kickstart his side’s season.
Spurs saw off Austrian side Wolfsberger 4-1 in Budapest thanks to goals from Son Heung-min, Gareth Bale, Lucas Moura and Carlos Vinicius.
Mourinho fielded a mixed XI at the Puskas Arena and his side are now as good as through to the last 16 of the Europa League, with an EFL Cup final also fast approaching.
In the Premier League, however, Spurs are down in ninth place and are six points adrift of the top four, albeit with a game in hand still to play on most of the sides above them.
Defeat to Manchester City last time out was their seventh of the season in the Premier League – only in 2015-16 with Chelsea (nine) has Mourinho lost more in a single campaign.
While Tottenham have struggled for consistency this term, West Ham are enjoying their best top-flight campaign at this stage of a season since 1985-86.
The Hammers beat bottom side Sheffield United 3-0 in midweek to make it 42 points from 24 matches, which is already three more points that they accrued in the whole of 2019-20.
However, West Ham have lost each of their last three home league games against bitter rivals Spurs – their longest losing run at home against them in their league history.
David Moyes also has a poor record against Mourinho, having faced the Portuguese on more occasions in all competitions without winning than he has against any other manager.
That is something Moyes will be looking to put right today to strengthen United’s top-four hopes and all but end Tottenham’s in the process.
West Ham possible XI: Fabianski, Diop, Dawson, Cresswell, Coufal, Soucek, Rice, Johnson, Lingard, Lanzini, Bowen.
Tottenham possible XI: Lloris, Tanganga, Alderweireld, Dier, Davies, Sissoko, Hojbjerg, Bergwijn, Ndombele, Son, Kane.