West Ham v Tottenham: Always back goals when Hammers are at home

Home concerns for the Hammers

It may not be THE game of the day anywhere else but for West Ham and Spurs fans this is a huge clash at the London Stadium between the two heated rivals who look pretty well matched this season.

Ask most people and they’ll say the Hammers have had a better start to the season but they sit a point behind Spurs after eight games, thanks mainly to losing their last two games at home to Brentford and Man Utd.

Just one home win this season will be a slight concern for David Moyes, as will conceding last-minute winners in both of their home defeats. They’ve also lost three of the last four home meetings with Spurs although they prevailed here last season.

Moyes’ side have generally played well though and continuity has been a key with West Ham using the least amount of players (18) and Moyes making the fewest changes to his starting XI (four) in the Premier League this season.

Whether playing on Thursday will be worse for the Hammers than Spurs will be a big question. Tottenham rested their entire first XI for the defeat at Vitesse Arnhem but the poor performance will have done little to boost the confidence of the squad.

Nuno on a rollercoaster ride at Spurs

It’s been a rollercoaster so far for Nuno Espirito Santo at Spurs, with three straight wins followed by three straight defeats followed by two more victories – following that form should see them victorious here.

Standing against that is the fact that they’ve lost their last four London derbies and that many are still unconvinced by Nuno even after five wins out of eight. They’ve only scored nine but with three of five of those coming in the last two games.

Whether that’s a sign of the floodgates opening now Harry Kane is fully settled and is rekindling his goal-getting bromance with Son Heung-min or whether in Newcastle and Aston Villa it was against two poor defensive sides remains to be seen.

At least Nuno’s Spurs side are decisive one way or another, as they’ve not had a draw in the last 14 Premier League games, and a win over one of their big rivals here would certainly put their new boss in the good books.

Hammers at home signals goals

It’s a close call this one but West Ham are favoured at home, even though their home record isn’t the best so far this season, with the Hammers 2.466/4 for the win against Spurs, who are 3.185/40 with the draw priced at 3.55/2.

Every one of West Ham’s home games this season has seen both teams score and over 2.5 goals, as had Tottenham’s last two away games.

You can back over 2.5 goals and both teams to score yet again via Bet Builder at around 2.01/1.

And that is probably the preferred way to go in this game, which you can see going either way even if a West Ham win would be the prediction if pushed.

It’ll be interesting to see if Nuno will try and keep this more free-flowing goal scoring approach going in a seriously big game, following that disappointing Europa Conference League result on Thursday night.

Kane & Antonio face favourite opponents

With 11 goals against the Hammers, Harry Kane has only scored more against Leicester even if only three have come at the London Stadium. He was given the night off for Thursday’s Conference League game so arrives fresh and ready to score anytime at generous odds for him of 2.111/10.

Son has been Spurs’ shining light though as his four goals and one assist have produced eight points for the team – the most of any player in the Premier League so far – so at 2.89/5 to score he’ll be on plenty of bet slips.

Michail Antonio is a personal favourite as when at his best he looks simply unplayable and the bad news for Spurs is that he’s scored more against them than any other team in the league (five).

Those are great numbers to go behind a price of 2.89/5 to grab another against his favourite opponent, after also having the night off Thursday and being just the type of player that Spurs’ defence struggles against.