Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United

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Saturday 20th October 3pm
Premier League
London Stadium​

Another international break is out of the way, so we can get back to a short interlude of proper football.
It remains to be seen whether our various call-ups will have had any effect on our squad's fitness, though.
We've got a number of important games coming up and the schedule is getting packed.
Our hosts will be treating this as their most important game of the season, so we need to be sharp and firing.

West Ham started the campaign with a new manager, a fresh raft of signings and a lot of hope.
Manuel Pellegrini won the Premier League with Man City and he did so playing some nice stuff, too.
£100m in transfers, including a couple of club record signings, added to the buzz.
Wilshere, Diop, Anderson, Yarmolenko and Balbuena were the kind of players that they'd been calling for.
The bar had been raised and the negativity around the side had largely been shelved.

The opening fixtures sent the fans back to retrieve it from that shelf.
A 4-0 opening day loss at Anfield was one thing. Losing their first home game to Bournemouth was something else.
A loss at the Emirates to a formerly pointless Arsenal followed, as old fears resurfaced.
Losing in injury time to Wolves at home seemed to confirm those fears.

Pellegrini wasn't used to this sort of thing during his time in English football and he quickly turned it around.
A win at Goodison in a good display was followed by a respectable draw at Stamford Bridge.
Convincingly beating Man Utd in the next match resurrected the dreams of the summer.
A trip to Brighton and a loss to their bogey side has put them back in limbo, however.
Is it one step forward and two back or just teething problems for a new coach? Time will tell.

The match from last season was a rather strange one, switching from a stroll to a panicky finish.
It had started fairly normally, as we had a lot of possession but didn't create too many chances.
A quickfire double from Kane saw that change dramatically in a few minutes, as he punished some poor defending.
Eriksen making it 3-0 on the hour seemed to end the competition, but it's never that simple, is it?
Hernandez pulled one back quickly, before Aurier was dismissed and Kouyate reduced the deficit late on.

The game at Wembley was incredibly one-sided, but somehow finished in a draw.
Chance after chance was spurned and there were a few penalty calls that went unheeded.
David Moyes had set up his side to defend and that's exactly what they did, until the 70th minute.
Pedro Obiang had their first attempt on goal and he rocketed it into the top corner, shocking everyone.
An unlikely victory looked on the cards, until Son hit a similar shot to equalise with barely five minutes left.

No injury news yet, but it seems likely that Vertonghen will still be absent.
Lanzini, Carroll, Wilshere and Silva are out for them. Neither side has any suspensions.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Trippier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Rose; Sissoko, Winks, Dier, Son; Moura, Kane.
Subs: Gazzaniga, Walker-Peters, Davies, Wanyama, Skipp, Lamela, Llorente.
League form: WLLWWW.

West Ham: Fabianski; Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku; Rice; Yarmolenko, Noble, Obiang, Anderson; Arnautovic.
Subs: Adrian, Fredericks, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Snodgrass, Antonio, Perez.
League form: LLWDWL.

Referee: Martin Atkinson.

TV: Not televised.

With our possible absences and rather odd form, how would you line up for this one?
Should we leave anyone out, having one eye on our extremely important Champions League game next week?
Which system and what tactics should we adopt for a hostile away trip?

 

Carroll and Wilshere injured?????? Shurely schum mistake?

 

Paul (the other one, mate) Stewart. < LDL >

 

The first game for a certain Spurs manager.
A goal for a certain player on his Spurs debut,
with the assist pass by a certain Spurs player.

Who remembers them 4 years later ... ??

 

Many, many Happy Returns, Mr Stalteri!!

 

Still one of the most hilariously biased pieces of modern commentary. "Oh no!"

 

As with 2013-14, the Spanners have another season where
they have at least 3 cup finals. We don't want a repeat of
that. Neither of last season, where Spurs spanked them at
the Taxpayers arena and then threw away the League Cup tie.

I'm not sure how fragile the current starting XI CM will
be for this game.

 

was on skysports last week as a 15 min classic. Recorded it and watched it with my daughter...was such a great match and th at last 3 minutes was comedy gold

 

When West Ham went 3-2 up with 5 minutes left Robert Green was going crazy ... his reaction to the spurs winner still makes me laugh, but not as much as watching Mark Noble crying

 

Pre-match stuff ...

Interesting pre-amble on what/who hacks think
should have reporting embargoes on.

 

I thought that I knew what happiness was when Berbatov equalised..........I knew nothing.

 

Could be interesting this, as quite a few players should be pretty jaded from internationals and/or coming back from injury, and West Ham are always well up for this one. I don’t think Sanchez and Moura trained until Friday or something similar because of their travels? I think we’ll see something like:

Lloris
Trippier Alderweireld Dier Davies
Wanyama Winks
Lamela Eriksen Son
Kane

I’m not sure Eriksen or Kane last 90 especially with CL midweek and Dembélé most likely on the bench for me, coming on to sharpen up later in the game ahead of midweek.

 

I get the feeling that, while Dembele is available for selection, he's most likely to be used like he was early in the season and be brought on in the 70th(ish...) minute to firm up the middle and add a little physicality to the team. Or, to put it another way, he's now Sissoko while Sissoko is...anyone?

 

Along with Skipp, ahead of Wanyama on current form?

 

Sissoko played really well at West Ham ladt season and used his speed and muscle to upset their attempts to kick lumps out of our players. He also played well in the league cup match we lost a few weeks later.
I definitely would start him in midfield.

 

If only to allow him to resume his "Brokeback" romance with Mark Noble.

 

*checks for reverse rcl attempt*

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Hugo
Tripps, Dave, Toby, Davies
Dier, Winks
Sissoko, Lamela, Lucas
Kane

Son ain't been too sharp lately so would give a fresher Sissoko a run out. Eriksen's back but I wouldn't start him, likewise with Dembele, we'll need both fresh for PSV.

 

I am a happy clappy mofo at the moment...it's worked for the last 3 league matches and the league cup match so being a Victor Meldrew mo fo is so let year