Paul Merson predicts result of West Ham United Premier League clash v Tottenham Hotspur
Paul Merson has shared his prediction as West Ham United take on Tottenham Hotspur in North London in the Premier League on Thursday evening.
The Hammers missed the chance to make it three successive league wins after they were held back to a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace at the London Stadium on Sunday (3 December) thanks to Odsonne Edouard capitalising on Konstantinos Mavropanos’ mistake.
And speaking to Sportskeeda (4 December), Merson believes Tottenham may be too strong for the Hammers at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday (7 December) in what should be a “difficult clash” for the North Londoners.
He wrote: “This is another difficult game – they’re coming thick and fast for Tottenham. You’ve got to give credit where it’s due – they did well against Man City yesterday. They fell behind and came back twice – fair play to them. You’ve got to ride your luck against City, and they picked the right passes on the counter.
“Tottenham were bang unlucky against Chelsea. They’ve had a lot of injuries, and they’ve played against good teams during this period. You can’t afford that against the top teams. If Arsenal had those injuries, they wouldn’t have done well either.
“Tottenham will take a lot of encouragement from the City game, but they’ll need to step up here and get a result against West Ham. If they don’t, the draw against City would’ve been a waste of time. I think this is a good week for Tottenham, and they should be able to defeat West Ham on Thursday.
“Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 West Ham United.”
Must improve
The Hammers may well have claimed ten points from their last three games in the Premier League but their performances have certainly left a lot to be desired.
West Ham United were pretty laboured and unimaginative against Crystal Palace on Sunday (3 December) continuing their worrying spate of lifeless displays in recent weeks.
It was a similar theme in wins against Burnley, Backa Topola and Nottingham Forest which has certainly left some of the fans a bit sceptical about how things are progressing under Moyes’ watch.
If the East Londoners are to claim an unlikely away win against their London neighbours on Thursday then they need to step things up in their performances as Tottenham have been pretty impressive despite no wins in their last four games.
Tottenham have performed admirably and stuck to their tactical guns despite their current injury crisis making this clash a pretty dangerous one for Moyes and West Ham United.
In other West Ham news, a first-team player may have a big decision to make with regards to his future in the coming weeks.