View: West Ham certain to seal victory over Tottenham if David Moyes exploits key weakness
Tottenham’s performance against AC Milan should give West Ham encouragement ahead of this weekend’s derby clash.
Spurs lost 1-0 at the San Siro on Tuesday night (14 February) and, in truth, are lucky to still be in the game as the home side missed a host of chances to kill the tie in the second half.
Brahim Diaz scored the only goal of the game in the seventh minute and that key moment should provide plenty of encouragement for David Moyes’ men.
Tottenham started a full-strength team, or at least as strong as they could have considering Hugo Lloris, Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma and Ryan Sessegnon are all injured.
It is the defence that needs to be focused on because, for Diaz’s goal, they were all at sea.
Firstly, Cristian Romero, who missed last weekend’s 4-1 loss to Leicester through suspension, fails to win a simple header.
He is then left miles out of position as AC Milan press forward and score.
That being said, he is not the only one who needs to take some blame.
Look at this next screenshot.
Look how many Tottenham players are in or around the six-yard box as Diaz bundles the ball over Fraser Forster.
It’s tragic.
There are three more Spurs players in the box, doing absolutely nothing.
Whoever lines up for the Hammers on Sunday should be able to run rings around this defence.
A defence that conceded four goals against Leicester last time out in the league. Tottenham also really need to win the second leg of their Champions League tie so Conte could make changes.
Davinson Sanchez and Japhet Tanganga could come in, they were both on the bench at the San Siro.
Pedro Porro. who had a shocking debut against the Foxes could be given a second chance. That being said, he would be up against an in-from Jarrod Bowen, so, good luck.
West Ham should have absolutely nothing to fear when they line up against Tottenham as evidenced by their pitiful display against AC Milan.