The Premier League resumes this weekend with a highly awaited London Derby set to kick-off a busy Saturday schedule. Westham will be the host to Tottenham Hotspur at the London Stadium.
This will be the first match for newly appointed Spurs manager Jose Mourinho. The former Manchester United and Chelsea manager replaced the sacked Mauricio Pochettino on Tuesday.
He takes over a team that has not won in the league for the past five matches and sits 14th in the table with 14 points. They are ten points behind the fourth-placed team in the league, Manchester City.
Westham, on the other hand, has lost four of their last five league matches and is in danger of sliding in the relegation zone. Pellegrini’s side is just five points above 18th placed Watford.
The Hammers will be without their first-choice goalkeeper Lucasz Fabianski who is out with a knee injury as well as forward Manuel Lanzini while Jack Wilshere and defender Winston Reid remain doubtful with groin strains.
Spurs meanwhile will also miss the first-choice goalkeeper Hugo Lloris who is out with a shoulder injury. Eric Lamela will also be sidelined by a thigh injury while midfielder Tanguy Ndombele is doubtful with a groin injury.
José Mourinho would love to begin his reign at Tottenham by heightening the pressure on Manuel Pellegrini. Mauricio Pochettino’s replacement has rarely seen eye-to-eye with his West Ham counterpart, whose side have slipped towards the bottom three during a run of seven games without a win in all competitions.
Yet this is a hard one to call. West Ham raises their level in this fixture and Tottenham have not won away in the league since January, which is partly why they felt compelled to replace Pochettino with Mourinho this week.