Opposition Preview: West Ham United

On Saturday afternoon, Tottenham Hotspur will host West Ham United in the early kick off – the first Premier League game back after the October international break. Let’s take a look at the current state of play when it comes to the visitors.

In the summer, West Ham and David Moyes went their separate ways after four and a half years at the club in his second spell at the Hammers. They moved to replace him with Spanish manager Julen Lopetegui.

It was not an easy start for the 58-year old, who had only won one of his first six Premier League games in charge, but a 4-1 win last time out over Ipswich Town who had not lost in their previous five games was certainly a much needed step in the right direction.

Spurs only took one point off West Ham in the league last season, though with a new manager and new players, there probably isn’t much you can take from those games heading into the weekends showdown.

There have been reports that one of their summer signings, Niclas Fullkrug, is set to be out for another extended period of time, so we can assume they will be up against Michail Antonio for this one – a player who has caused many problems in these fixtures in the past. His six goals against Tottenham make the club his favourite Premier League opponent - doing so in just fourteen games.

In the last game against Ipswich, Antonio was one of four different goalscorers, as well as Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, and Mohammed Kudus. Each of those players can cause Spurs issues in their own way and they will have to defend a lot better than they did against Brighton, if they are to keep West Ham at bay for 90 minutes.

There have been defensive struggles for Lopetegui’s side so far this season, conceding 11 goals in their seven games so far, more than Crystal Palace in the relegation zone. Ironically, their only clean sheet of the season was a 2-0 win against Palace.

As a result, you would hope that Spurs should be able to create plenty of chances, and if Heung Min-Son is ready to start the game, you would hope that he will help the evergreen issue of converting chances - albeit that has improved in recent weeks. The skipper has scored six goals and provided a further four assists in 16 Premier League games against Saturday's opponents.