First game back after the international break that has interrupted the Premier League and West Ham will hope to continue their upward trajectory which began with the somewhat surprising three-nil victory away at Nottingham Forest. The Tottenham Hotspur derby always draws interest and hopefully will provide a more feisty and entertaining spectacle than last season’s dire 1-1 borefest.
The sub plot of Mohammed Kudus returning to east London hopefully ensures a spicy welcome for the former Hammer who hasn’t been slow to pour out words guaranteed to alienate his former fans.
Graham Potter has to decide how best to deploy the additions made to his squad during the summer window: Whilst Fernandes is a shoe-in, the likes of Magassa and loanee Igor Julio will be hoping for involvement. Like most Hammers fans, we are hoping for a 4 -3 -2-1 or 4-3-3 line up rather than the 5-3-2 which quickly becomes nine last ditch-defenders and has failed either to impress or entertain.
Here we give our own predictions on Graham Potters starting eleven, not the XI we’d like to see…
West Ham predicted starting XI: 4-3-2-1
Hermansen | Walker Peters, Mavropanous, Kilman, Diouf | Soucek, Fernandes, Ward Prowse | Paquetá, Bowen | Wilson
Sean 0-3 Spurs win
Gonzo 2-1 West Ham win
Matt 1-0 West Ham win
Martin 2-0 West Ham win
We will have the full line up for you at 4.15 so check back for Graham Potter’s starting line up. We’ll also have Gonzo’s ‘player ratings’ and ‘final whistle, first impressions’ articles after the game to which you can add your own opinions on the Hammers performance in the comments sections.