Tottenham‘s Premier League relegation battle with fierce rivals West Ham United is set to go right down to the wire.
With fellow strugglers Leeds United and Nottingham Forest finding form, right now it is looking like a straight shootout between Spurs and West Ham.
Tottenham defeated Wolves 1-0 at the weekend through a late Joao Palhinha goal, but the gap on the Hammers in 17th remains two points after their 2-1 win over Everton.
Both teams have four more matches to play this season and are separated by only six goals in terms of the goal difference.
Spurs’ priority is to get as many points on the board as possible, with the win over Wolves at least a starting point, but they may have an advantage over West Ham if things go all the way.
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What permutations will be used if Spurs and West Ham finish level?
Given just how tight it has been this season, there is every chance Spurs and West Ham could finish level on points.
If that is the case, goal difference will then be used to determine who stays up and who goes down.
Beyond that – again, there is a good chance this could happen – it then goes on goals scored, which is also tight. Spurs have netted 43 times this season compared to West Ham’s 42.
Should that also be level, it will then come down to the head-to-head records this season. Once again, it is dead level in that regard in terms of results.
So rather remarkably, it would then go down to which side scored the most away goals in this fixtures – a 2-1 win for West Ham at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and a 3-0 win for Spurs at the London Stadium.
That victory at the London Stadium, or more specifically Micky van de Ven’s third goal that didn’t count for much on the face of it at the time, could be what relegates West Ham and keeps Spurs up.
It would be the craziest manner of relegation in English top flight history, but Spurs fans would obviously take it every day of the week.
How did West Ham 0-3 Tottenham pan out
It is easy to forget now, but Spurs climbed up to second place in September when thrashing West Ham in East London.
The Hammers had Tomas Soucek sent off after Pape Matar Sarr had already opened the scoring, before Lucas Bergvall and Van de Ven – as mentioned – found the back of the net.
Bergvall was superb for Tottenham against West Ham as he completed 100 per cent of his dribbles, scored one and assisted another.
Spurs really did dominate proceedings, obviously helped by playing much of the second half with an extra man, as they had 64 per cent of the ball to West Ham’s 36 per cent.
Spurs’ 14 shots equated to an expected goals (xG) value of 1.22, meanwhile, compared to seven and 0.6 for the Hammers respectively.
As for Van de Ven, he registered 3.9 clearances, 0.7 interceptions and 1.2 tackles. More importantly, he scored that third goal that could yet come into play next month.
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