English Premier League – Match Preview: West Ham United versus Tottenham Hotspurs
West Ham United are all set to take on Tottenham Hotspurs in a London derby which will be the sixth match of the English Premier League season for both teams. Tottenham have had a characteristically unpredictable start to their season.
In their first match of the English Premier League season, they achieved a draw with Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium, since then they have impressed on some occasions while sometimes they have clearly failed to perform up to their abilities.
Last season, Hotspurs were successful in earning a spot in the UEFA Champions League for the 2010-2011 season as a courtesy of their fourth placed finish. It was the first time since the inception of the English Premier League in
1992 that Tottenham broke through the top four barrier. Under Harry Redknapp, Spurs have turned into a competitive outfit who give the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal a run for their money. In their second match of the league season they faced Stoke City at the
Britannia stadium, a match that Spurs won easily by a score line of two goals to one in the end.
Spur’s played Wigan in their third match of the English Premier League season, a game that they were expected to win with ease given the fact that Wigan were clearly struggling at that stage of the season. After conceding ten goals
in their first two games, Wigan were there for the beating but Tottenham made the unforgivable mistake of under-estimating their opponents and surprisingly lost the game by a score line of one goal to nil.
Fourth match of the English Premier League season for Tottenham turned up to be a draw as they were unable to break down a miserly West Bromwich Albion defence, which was on top form at the Hawthorns stadium. Tottenham won their last
league match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, courtesy of a late penalty kick which was converted by their summer signing Rafael Van Der Vaart from Real Madrid.
Not only do Spurs have to compete in the English Premier League this season, they are also part of the UEFA Champions League’s group of death i.e. a group which contains the current European champions, Inter Milan, German giants Werder
Bremen and Swiss underdogs F.C Twente. There have been experts who have said that Tottenham’s squad will be quite stretched come to the business end of the club football season but evidence is already emerging as Spurs were knocked out of the Carling Cup in
mid-week by their north London rivals, Arsenal.
Alternatively, Tottenham’s London neighbours, West Ham United have had a torrid start to their season. They still have to register their first three points of the season as they still have to win their first match of the season. West
Ham lost their first match of the season against Aston Villa, a match during which they showed “how-not-to-defend-in-a-football-match” as they conceding three weak goals to lose the game, 3-0. They also lost against Chelsea and Manchester United by two and
three goals respectively but Grant’s men had enough about them to get a draw against Stoke City.
In their latest game in the Carling Cup, West Ham defeated Sunderland to progress to the fourth round of the tournament and therefore they approach this match with some amount of confidence in their ranks. Currently, 20th
in a twenty team English Premier League with a single point from five games and a goal difference of negative ten, things can only get better for the Hammers. They will be relying on Carlton Cole to fire them through to a victory while Harry Redknapp, Tottenham’s
manager will be gambling with a few changes to his line up as Tottenham face F.C Twente in the middle of next week in their UEFA Champions’ League group stage match.
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