West Ham v Tottenham predictions: Spurs set for London derby delight

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for West Ham v Tottenham in the Premier League on Wednesday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 2, 7.45pm Wednesday

Best bet

Tottenham
1pt Evs general

Team news

West Ham
New signing Lucas Paqueta is unlikely to be involved. Ben Johnson (hamstring) is a doubt. Nayef Aguerd and Craig Dawson are out.

Tottenham
Cristian Romero and Olly Skipp could be available. Rodrigo Bentancur (concussion) is a doubt. Bryan Gil and Lucas Moura remain sidelined.

Match preview

West Ham are finally up and running with a goal and three points after a trio of blanks but there's no great appetite for thinking they can back it up at home to bitter rivals Tottenham.

David Moyes's men had endured a poor start to their domestic campaign with a trio of losses to nil against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Brighton.

Studded between those setbacks were a pair of wins over Danish outfit Viborg to secure qualification to the Europa Conference League group stage, which starts next Thursday with a home tie against Steaua Bucharest.

And they also registered their first Premier League success of the season on Sunday, a slightly fortunate 1-0 win over Aston Villa hoisting them off the foot of the table.

But for 45 minutes until a tactical rethink, the Hammers were second-best and not pretty and the evidence of the season so far – indeed the evidence of the last few months – is that they are going to struggle to keep Tottenham out.

Spurs, a best-priced even-money in places, are unbeaten after four rounds of matches and far from perfect themselves.

But on current form they definitely have more in their favour and warrant a bet.

Antonio Conte's men are currently unbeaten in ten in the Premier League and have started this season with a trio of wins over Southampton, Wolves and Nottingham Forest plus a hard-earned draw at Chelsea.

They've been a long way from step perfect and even at Forest on Sunday had to withstand plenty of pressure.

Harry Kane bailed them out with both goals in the 2-0 win and will be looking to cap an unusually successful August with another goal or two. He's 13-10 to score at any time.

Conte may make changes and has more options this season than last with the likes of Ryan Sessegnon, Yves Bissouma and Richarlison all gagging to go and, in the case of the Brazilian, with much to offer.

Heung-Min Son hasn’t started the season that well though his pace on the counter is absolutely critical to everything that's good about Spurs on the road where they are unbeaten in seven.

David Moyes made a massive tactical switch against Villa, going five at the back, and it almost backfired. They were awful in the first half, he addressed the formation at the interval and they went on to win 1-0.

It's not clear if he knows whether to trust Gianluca Scamacca in the lone striker role ahead of pet favourite Michail Antonio, but it's likely that the Scot will revert to a 4-2-3-1 set-up or something similar and more trustworthy.

The Hammers are without a win in their last five at home in the league but aren't getting rolled over. An alternative to a Spurs bet could be Spurs and under 3.5 goals because this doesn't look like it will be a free-for-all.

Key stat

West Ham's four league matches have produced six goals, the joint-lowest total in the Premier League.

Inside info

West Ham

Penalty taker Declan Rice, Manuel Lanzini
Assist ace Jarrod Bowen
Set-piece aerial threat Tomas Soucek
Card magnet Aaron Cresswell

Tottenham

Penalty taker Harry Kane
Assist ace Dejan Kulusevski
Set-piece aerial threat Eric Dier
Card magnet Pierre Hojbjerg

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