Tottenham must overcome West Ham bugbear

By Ryan Wrenn | Sep 21, 2017

STRATFORD, ENGLAND - MAY 05: A dejected Christian Eriksen of Tottenham Hotspur looks on as West Ham players celebrate their team's 1-0 victory during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur at the London Stadium on May 5, 2017 in Stratford, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images) /

For two years running, West Ham have punished Tottenham with consecutive 1-0 home wins. Saturday represents Spurs’ chance at redemption.

Mauricio Pochettino will be thankful that this match is coming now, near the beginning of Tottenham’s season, rather than nearer to the end as the previous two fixtures had.

This robs West Ham the opportunity to play their part in ruining Spurs’ title run in, but it remains a crucial match nonetheless.

With last week’s dour 0-0 home draw against Swansea, a result that slowed Spurs’ momentum after a memorable Champions League victory over Borussia Dortmund midweek, the club should be fairly desperate for some redemption.

Thankfully for them, they are meeting West Ham after some dicey results to start the season. Slaven Bilić’s job was under threat after three successive losses to start the season. Only an unexpected win against a precocious Huddersfield team followed by a respectable 0-0 draw away at West Brom allowed him to stay on to preside over Saturday’s match against Spurs.

Bilić is sometimes accused of lacking guile when it comes to his tactics, but the 1-0 wins he engineered over Spurs strongly suggest otherwise. He devised gameplans that simultaneously nullified Spurs’ advantages in attack and exploited their weaknesses against the press. Even the most ardent Tottenham fan must begrudgingly admit that Pochettino’s sides were well beaten on those occasions, even if the scoreline looked narrow.

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Overcoming precisely that vulnerability to the counter-press appears to be a key point of emphasis for Pochettino this season. He utilized a more reactive, counter-attacking game against Dortmund to great effect, though it’s difficult to imagine Spurs conceding so much possession to a team like West Ham.

What we might see here is a slightly less intense emphasis on pressing. Tottenham will still look to dominate possession and reclaim the ball, but not to the extent that it pulls them out of shape, leaving them open to quick counter-attacks.

Tottenham might not feel that they are as vulnerable as they were in prior meetings however. The arrival of Javier Hernández and the return to health — for now — of Andy Carroll might provoke Bilić into favoring attacks through the air. With Michaeil Antonio on the flank, it’s easy to see a direct route out of the defense via long balls to the English winger, then crossed into the box for Hernández and Carroll to bring down for attempts on goal.

This strategy isn’t quite as threatening to Spurs as West Ham’s previous wins, where the pace of Antonio and Miguel Lanzini combined with the ingenuity of Dimitri Payet to trouble a backline that relies heavily on a high press.

Pushing Carroll and Hernández away from goal while concentrating on keeping Antonio contained should prove a bit easier in contrast.

Next: West Ham vs Tottenham: Spurs return to London Stadium

That’s not to say this is a sure thing for Spurs. They still need to find a reliable Plan B in attack when or if West Ham’s defense proves up to the taste of stopping Pochettino’s usual tactics. If Bilić’s men get bogged down going forward themselves, this might be a good opportunity for Pochettino to test his range of options from the bench.