Stop! Hammer Time!

According to Google Maps it would take me seventy-two hours of constantly walking to get from my house to the London Stadium, home of our opponents for this Saturday's lunchtime kick off. There is a reason I mention this, as I'm fully aware its a home game, because there is obviously a slightly careless West Ham fan living in my vicinity. The other morning while walking my dog I came across the following item discarded in a bush:-

On closer inspection I realised it was a tie, albeit looking a bit sorry for itself even allowing for the fact it had poured with rain the night before. A couple of days down the line its gone so hopefully the rightful owner has remembered where he left it and come back to pick it up.

Of course the carelessness that would lead to leaving a tie in a random bush in North Devon could well prove to be fatal for either of the two coaches who'll be selecting the teams for Saturdays games. West Ham have had a poor start to the season but managed a good performance in the last game before the cursed International break with a 4-1 home win over Ipswich. 

Spurs on the other hand have been basically Spurs by playing well in nearly all the games and being awful for large periods of nearly all the games. The main exception being Manchester United away when they showed the consistancy that's been missing since about 1984.

West Ham boss Julen Lopetegui took over this summer from David Moyes. He won the Europa League with Seville in 2020, but had previously had a tenure at Real Madrid that lasted about as long as Nuno Esperito Santo's did at Spurs. He also managed Wolves but left after ten months due to differences with the Board. 

Lopetegui ponders how he can clone Antonio in time for Saturdays game.

I think he has a very decent squad to work with at West Ham especially with regard to the attacking options. This is boosted by the 35 year old Michail Antonio who basically turns into the Original Ronaldo whenever he plays against Spurs. If he scores the winner on Saturday it'll be about as surprising to me as our collapse at Brighton was last time out.

At his press conference today Ange Postecoglu gave the squad an almost clean bill of health with only Wilson Odebert still on the sidelines. This is quite remarkable given how many were off on International duty. My main reservation will be with the returning Romero who played in Argentina's 6-0 win over Bolivia, a game that finished around 3am our time on Wednesday morning. Romero has had a poor start to the season and I'm hoping this break will give him a reset. It remains to be seen if getting back later than the rest of the returning players will adversely effect his performance. Lets hope not.

Romero celebrates his goal in this fixture last year. We lost of course.

Despite the disaster that was the second half at the Amex, I expect the fit again Son to be only change to the starting line up, in at the expense of the confidence adverse Timo Werner. The near fortnight break without flying halfway around the world will hopefully have done Sonny the power of good as well.

It seems like every game is 'must win' these days for Spurs, but they really need three points this time out. Defeat will see us behind West Ham in the table which will be remarkable considering the perception of how bad they started the campaign. Some fans are having doubts about Ange. I can see where they're coming from but I'm keeping the faith. The players can really help him by cutting out the silly errors. Its not just the defenders, the forwards need to be making the right decisions with the final ball and the midfield have to make sure they do their defensive duties. Most of all, the senior players need to start acting like leaders on the pitch. No more pathetic capitulations. Come On You Spurs!!