West Ham United

Premier League, London Stadium, Sunday 4 May 2025, 2pm BST

West Ham United will be eager to bounce back to winning ways and spark a strong finish to 2024/25 when they welcome Tottenham Hotspur to London Stadium for their final derby of the campaign on Sunday.

The Hammers are winless in seven, following last weekend's narrow defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion, and currently sit 17th in the table with just four fixtures to go until the summer break.

While Graham Potter's men remain 15 points clear of already-relegated 18th-place side Ipswich Town, they know that a string of good results over the coming weeks could yield a run up the standings, with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 13th just five points ahead.

Just one place and one point above the Irons in 16th, Tottenham have endured a difficult season of their own, and in the league have lost five of their last six, including a 5-1 thrashing at champions Liverpool on their most recent outing.

Things have been better for Ange Postecoglou's men on the continent, and while they will arrive in the east of the capital halfway through their two-legged UEFA Europa League semi-final against Bodø/Glimt, they will be hoping to build momentum back on the domestic front, as well.

All signs point to an enticing match-up, then, with both teams firmly focused on securing all three points to boost their season run-in.

Read on for everything you need to know ahead of the match...

Tickets…

Tickets for this sold-out game are still available on the Ticket Exchange, with Season Ticket Holders who cannot attend this fixture relisting their seats for other supporters to buy.

Click HERE to check availability or relist.

Supporters are urged to arrive early at London Stadium on Sunday as security and ticket checks will be in place at all entry points.

Travel…

There are no planned disruptions to TfL Underground services on the Central and Jubilee lines, though there are set to be issues on the Bakerloo, Circle, District and Waterloo & City lines, Elizabeth line services, the Docklands Light Railway and the Lioness, Suffragette and Windrush lines on the London Overground. Supporters using these services are highly recommended to check their routes before departure.

Similarly, there are planned disruptions on Greater Anglia and c2c mainline services, as well as the Southeastern network that serves Stratford International.

Stratford and Stratford City Bus Stations are located in close proximity to Stratford station. Buses that run to these stations are numbers: 25, 86, 97, 104, 108, 158, 241, 257, 262, 276, 308, 425, 473, D8.

Supporters using public transport are advised to check their journeys before they travel, using resources such as TfL’s Journey Planner and the TfL Go app. Supporters may also wish to visit the National Rail website if travelling on the rail network.

There is no parking available at London Stadium. Restrictions will be in place and enforced in the local area.

How To Follow…

Sunday’s 2pm kick-off will NOT be broadcast live in the UK, but will be shown across the world by the Premier League’s international broadcast partners.

If you live outside the UK, click HERE for details of Premier League listings in your territory.

You can follow the action via our live blog on whufc.com and our app, and across our social media channels. We will also have highlights and exclusive reaction for you after the final whistle on our website and social media.

Live audio commentary will be available in the UK on BBC Radio London, and worldwide on our official website and app.

We Are West Ham. United...

At West Ham United, we are proud to be based in one of the most multicultural areas of the country where equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of everything we do. Regardless of ethnicity, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation or beliefs, everyone is welcome at our Club.

Our aspiration is to be the equity leader in football and alongside our supporters, this is something we are continually looking to build on and improve. We thank all of our fans for their ongoing support and for helping us to eradicate the bad behaviours which do not represent our Club, our community or our West Ham United family.

To report any concerns on matchday, text SUPPORT plus your message to 83121 or speak to the nearest steward, SLO or Police Officer. Text messages are treated in the strictest confidence, and, for our staff, it is better to monitor the situation as it is happening and to be able to take action at the time of it occurring.

Our Conduct Charter is created to further support the provision of a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment for all West Ham United supporters and staff at home and away matches, on social media, Club related meetings or events, or in any other forum.

Official Programme…

West Ham United’s 2024/25 Official Programme for Sunday’s Premier League derby fixture against Tottenham Hotspur at London Stadium is available to purchase online now!

Following the historic, combined men's and women's issue for the Premier League and Barclays Women's Super League games against Southampton and Manchester United respectively, the Club has once again produced a bumper 132-page programme for the men's team's upcoming visit of Ange Postecoglou's Spurs, complete with a bespoke cover illustration and an additional eight-page pullout, featuring an eye-catching poster, a brainteasing quiz and plenty of games for our younger Hammers.

The largest publication in English football, this weekend's Official Programme is still priced at just £4, representing remarkable value for money for supporters of all ages wanting exclusive interviews, attention-grabbing opinions and eye-catching photographs, plus the regular news, columns and statistics and insightful content from across all areas of the Club.

The Official Programme is the definitive Claret and Blue publication for West Ham fans.

Click HERE for more information, and HERE to purchase your copy!

Blesma, The Limbless Veterans...

Sunday marks Charity Partner Blesma’s annual Awareness Day at London Stadium.

Based in Chelmsford, Blesma is a UK Armed Forces charity dedicated to supporting serving and ex-Service men and women who have experienced life-changing limb loss, or the loss of use of limbs, eyes or sight.

The charity offers lifelong support to those who have served our country, providing a range of services including prosthetic and mobility assistance, grants, benefits advice and a variety of activities designed to enhance wellbeing. Since the First World War, Blesma has supported over 61,000 limbless veterans.

To find out more about Blesma and how to support their vital work, please click HERE.

Team News…

Graham Potter will hold his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon. However, we do know that long-term absentees Michail Antonio and Crysencio Summerville will miss the game, with the latter having recently undergone surgery on his hamstring injury.

Evan Ferguson will be fighting for selection again, having been ineligible to face his parent club Brighton & Hove Albion last time out, while Edson Álvarez will be assessed after missing the last two matches.

Tottenham captain Son Heung-min is a doubt for this weekend's clash, having missed their last three Premier League fixtures through injury, and defender Radu Drăgușin remains out.

Opposition…

At the start of April last year, everything looked good at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Australian head coach Ange Postecoglou had kicked off his reign with a ten-match unbeaten run that saw Spurs storm to the top of the Premier League table. And although results had been less consistent for the next few months, Tottenham still went into the final seven matches of the 2024/25 campaign in the top four and on course for UEFA Champions League qualification.

However, the north Londoners would lose five of those seven matches, all to clubs rivalling them for a top-four finish, and ultimately slip to a fifth-place finish and settle for a place in the UEFA Europa League.

While fifth in his first season in charge was, on paper, a decent return for Postecoglou, that late-season downturn in results continued into the current campaign, leaving the aforementioned Europa League as Tottenham’s only hope of returning to continental competition in 2025/26.

Ahead of this weekend's action, Spurs have won just eleven of their 34 Premier League games and sit in the bottom third of the table, albeit with a bizarre positive goal difference generated by a series of emphatic early-season victories.

Those pre-Christmas wins over the likes of Everton, Brentford, Manchester United, West Ham United, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Southampton seem like a lifetime, rather than a few months, ago.

Since thumping reigning champions Manchester City 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium on 23 November, Tottenham have won five and lost 14 of the 22 Premier League matches they have played and dropped from sixth to 16th in the table.

The Carabao Cup offered some respite, with early-round wins over both Manchester clubs and a semi-final first-leg victory over Liverpool raising hopes of a first trophy win since 2008, only for the Reds to thump Spurs 4-0 in the second leg at Anfield.

An FA Cup fourth-round exit at Aston Villa ended that chance of silverware, leaving the Europa League as the only route open to Postecoglou, who said last September ‘I always win things in my second year’.

To be fair, Tottenham have done well in Europe, finishing fourth in the new Europa League league phase, then defeating West Ham’s recent European opponents AZ of the Netherlands and Eintracht Frankfurt of Germany in the knockout stages to set up a two-legged semi-final with Norwegian champions Bodø/Glimt, the first of which will be played in north London on Thursday evening.

Victory over Bodø/Glimt and either Manchester United or Athletic Club of Bilbao in the final would secure Spurs a place in next season’s Champions League, prove Postecoglou right and end 17 years without a major trophy.

Previous Meetings…

West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur have met 57 times in the Premier League, with Spurs winning 27 to the Hammers’ 18, while 12 matches have been drawn.

The Irons are unbeaten in the sides’ last four matches at London Stadium. Before 1-1 draws in April 2024 and August 2022, Michail Antonio scored the winner in October 2021 and was also on the scoresheet alongside Jesse Lingard in a 2-1 triumph over Jose Mourinho’s team behind closed doors in February of that year.

Tottenham did beat West Ham three times on the trot at home in all competitions between December 2021 and February 2023, until Jarrod Bowen and James Ward-Prowse strikes powered David Moyes’ men to a 2-1 win in north London in early December 2023.

Spurs did triumph in the teams' most recent meeting, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, however, with Dejan Kulusevski, Yves Bissouma and Son Heung-min strikes, and an Alphonse Areola own-goal, powering Ange Postecoglou's men to a 4-1 win in October 2024.

This particular match-up also has a reputation for a wonderstrike or two. Manuel Lanzini rescued a point with a 30-yard screamer as the Hammers overturned a three-goal deficit to draw 3-3 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2020, while two years earlier Pedro Obiang stunned Wembley Stadium with an unstoppable long-range rocket in a game that finished 1-1.

Match Officials…

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt and James Mainwaring

Fourth Official: Ruebyn Ricardo

VAR: Darren England

Assistant VAR: Peter Wright

Michael Oliver will referee a West Ham United fixture for the 45th time in his illustrious career on Sunday.

Born in Ashington, Northumberland, 40-year-old Oliver was introduced to refereeing by his father, Clive, at the age of 14 and became the youngest referee to officiate at Wembley Stadium when he took charge of the 2007 Conference National play-off final, aged just 22.

He had already become the youngest Football League assistant referee and referee when he became the youngest Premier League referee when he took charge of Birmingham City’s 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers on 21 August 2010, aged 25.

Since that historic day, Oliver has refereed two FA Cup finals, in 2018 and 2021, the EFL Cup final in 2016, UEFA Super Cup final in 2022 and EFL Championship Play-Off final in 2023.

He is five short of 400 Premier League appointments and has passed 750 matches at all levels, including 39 in the UEFA Champions League.

Included in those 755 games were three at UEFA Euro 2020, three at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2024, in addition to Nations League ties and international friendlies.

For more information about the officials, click HERE.

We face our final derby of the season on Sunday when we welcome Tottenham Hotspur to London Stadium - and you can be there with limited seats available on the Ticket Exchange.

Our meeting with our London rivals has sold out, but you don't have to miss out as Season Ticket Holders who cannot make the game are relisting their seats for other members of the Claret and Blue Army to buy.

So with just two home games left - and this the last meeting with a fellow London side - you'll need to be there as we go for three points against Ange Postecogolu's side.

Tickets start at £50 for adults and £37.50 concessions, so secure your seat now as we aim to end the campaign on a high.

West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur

Premier League, London Stadium, Sunday 4 May 2025, 2pm BST

Referee: Michael Oliver

Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt & James Mainwaring

Fourth Official: Ruebyn Ricardo

VAR: Darren England

Assistant VAR: Peter Wright

Michael Oliver will referee a West Ham United fixture for the 45th time in his illustrious career on Sunday.

Born in Ashington, Northumberland, 40-year-old Oliver was introduced to refereeing by his father, Clive, at the age of 14 and became the youngest referee to officiate at Wembley Stadium when he took charge of the 2007 Conference National play-off final, aged just 22.

He had already become the youngest Football League assistant referee and referee when he became the youngest Premier League referee when he took charge of Birmingham City’s 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers on 21 August 2010, aged 25.

Since that historic day, Oliver has refereed two FA Cup finals, in 2018 and 2021, the EFL Cup final in 2016, UEFA Super Cup final in 2022 and EFL Championship Play-Off final in 2023.

He is five short of 400 Premier League appointments and has passed 750 matches at all levels, including 39 in the UEFA Champions League.

Included in those 755 games were three at UEFA Euro 2020, three at the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2024, in addition to Nations League ties and international friendlies.

Oliver will be assisted by Stuart Burt and James Mainwaring.

Burt, like Oliver, got into refereeing through his father and also worked at Euro 2024 alongside Sunday’s referee. Burt has officiated matches in the National League and run the line for 38 West Ham games previously.

Mainwaring will be running the line for a Hammers fixture for the 22nd time, the fourth time this season, but the first assisting Oliver.

The fourth official will be Ruebyn Ricardo who, like Oliver, has been a trailblazer for young match officials. Ricardo became the youngest Black referee to officiate an EFL fixture when he took charge of Crewe Alexandra versus Swindon Town in April 2023, aged just 25. He has refereed 39 matches this season, including 25 in the EFL and three in the FA Cup.

Darren England will look after Video Assistant Referee duties.

The 39-year-old has been busy in 2024/25, refereeing 17 Premier League and five other matches, including West Ham’s 3-2 defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend, and serving as VAR for eight games in domestic and UEFA competitions.

Taking a look back at a classic West Ham United moment on this day in history, in association with Heineken...

West Ham United produced a superb all-round performance to thrash Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 at White Hart Lane on this day in 1994.

The Hammers, who were enjoying their first season in the Premier League, tore Ossie Ardiles' Spurs apart, with first-half substitute Steve Jones opening the scoring on 37 minutes.

Trevor Morley doubled the Irons' lead with a penalty on the hour mark before future Hammer Teddy Sheringham pulled one back from the spot five minutes later.

Billy Bonds' side were not to be denied a famous win, though, as Morley struck his second on 72 minutes before Mike Marsh completed the scoring eleven minutes from full-time.

West Ham would go on to finish 13th in the 22-team table on 52 points, seven points and two places ahead of their north London rivals.

Preview Percy is back after the international break. Don’t worry, there’s another one in November. Here’s his look at Saturday’s trip to North London in the meantime...

Next up we have our inoculations as we get up in the middle of the night to venture north to the London Borough Of Haringey (motto: “At least we’re not Croydon”) for a 12:30pm kick-off at the toilet bowl where we will be hosted by Tottenham Hotspur.

C2C will be having a load of engineering works which will see a reduced service, with all trains diverted to Liverpool Street which might make things easier. Possibly not.

So Tottenham then. It is a fact of life for their supporters that, no matter what the team does on the pitch, the club will for some reason always be a laughing stock for the rest of the world. Indeed you can bet your last penny that someone, somewhere in Carlisle (bottom of League 2 with a -13 goal difference) is sitting there with a pint and thinking “still, at least we’re not Tottenham”.

They were of course rather scathing of our European win – the most repeated comment being “Mickey Mouse Cup”. Interesting how they have become experts on trophies all of a sudden isn’t it? I expect they’ve seen silverware on the telly or something. Meanwhile their own foray into the Thursday Night Conference effectively ended when they got beaten by Slovenia’s sixth best team. Not exactly Fiorentina, was it?

Back home it’s been an odd start to the season for them. Three wins (Everton h 4-0, Brentford h 3-1 and Man Utd h 3-0), three defeats (Newcastle a 2-1, Arsenal h 0-1 and Brighton a 3-2) and an opening-day 1-1 draw at Leicester has left them on 10 points from the seven they have played so far. The defeat to Brighton down in Falmer last week went some way to explaining a national epidemic of split sides, as a comfortable 2-0 lead was not so much thrown away as placed atop one of Elon Musk’s rockets and boosted into orbit.

As ever, Daisy has been poring over the information regarding their new signings. The first arrival came in the form of young Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall. The midfielder commanded a fee of around £8.5m coming in from Djurgarden. The 18 year-old’s starts so far this season have been confined to the League Cup and the Thursday Night League, though he has made five appearances off the bench in the league.

Those of us of a certain age felt ever so slightly older at the announcement that they had brought in Archie Gray from Leeds – and not simply because of the £40m fee that was paid to Leeds for an 18 year-old. As one travels towards the autumn years of one’s life, one gets used to seeing players who are the sons of those one remembers seeing play when one was a hell of a lot younger. One gets used to that eventually.

However in Archie Gray we are looking at the GRANDson of Frank Gray and GREAT nephew of Eddie Gray who, particularly in the case of the latter, was part of the Leeds side who kicked and (allegedly but everyone knows they did) bribed their way to 1970’s success. Like the Swedish lad, Gray’s starts have come in the League Cup and on Thursday nights, though again he has three sub appearances in the league.

Dominic Solanke’s signing raised an eyebrow or two and again this was not entirely down to the £65m fee paid to Bournemouth. History is littered with journeymen strikers who have a season in the sun before reality kicks in and they fade to obscurity.

Solanke’s career has all the hallmarks, scoring for fun at lower levels to assist with promotion but not really doing much in the top flight. Then came last season when suddenly he managed 19 goals in 38 league matches. To put that into context, his previous 96 top flight appearances over a period of seven or so years had netted him a grand total of 10 goals.

He has notched twice in five league starts but it remains to be seen how much bench time he gets when they have the likes of Son and Richarlison available again. Having said that, he is just the sort of player who scores against us and nobody else.

Further attacking options arrived in the form of Winston Odobert and Timo Werner. Odobert arrived for a so-called undisclosed fee of £25m from Burnley, for whom he holds the record of youngest ever Premier League scorer. A thigh injury will preclude his involvement on Saturday however. Werner on the other hand is not really a new signing as such, this season’s loan from Leipzig being a renewal of last season’s loan, with the added option to buy for £8.5m at the conclusion.

As far as injuries go for Saturday, both Son and Richarlison will need late tests to see if they are fit enough to throw themselves to the floor on Saturday both having missed the last few weeks. The international break will have been handily placed for their recovery then.

On we move and welcome then to the Wild and Wacky World Of Association Football. And we were all heartened, weren’t we, to hear that VAR errors are down by 80% this season. Rejoice one and all. An impressive statistic indeed. Until, that is, you realise that the source of that statistic is, er, PGMOL.

The statistic seems to depend on acceptance of PGMOL’s snow job every time something goes wrong, which, of course sees them rewriting the laws of the game every time they don’t get it right giving an instant removal from the stats for whatever mess they are clearing up at the time. As if to underline the matter, we saw a return of the completely made-up provision that contact in the box has to be “sustained” to make any sort of difference.

It doesn’t and the sole purpose of this trend is to repeat it often enough for it to be accepted. And of course, by concentrating on the false VAR narrative, the fraudulent and misleading statistic completely ignores the lousy standard of refereeing in general, most of which never gets near a video screen to review. So thanks for the update Mr Webb, but come back and see me when someone less dishonest is marking your homework.

And of course we should mention that our national team has a new manager in the form of Thomas Tuchel. This seems to have caused a mass bursting of blood vessels in certain quarters as it became public knowledge that Herr Tuchel is in fact a – wait for it – German. Shock, horror. It’s almost as if Capello and Eriksson never happened.

Now I’m as patriotic as the next man, but I have to say that I have no problem with Tuchel on the basis of his nationality. I am reliably informed that it is the year 2024 and these things really shouldn’t matter. The only issue I might have is whether or not he is the right man for the job.

That’s not a reflection on Tuchel’s abilities in any way. It’s more representative of my doubts in the abilities of anyone at the FA to make a decent decision on the matter. After all these were the people who decided that Sam Allardyce was the man for the job. And let’s not forget Allardyce is English.

In the meantime, Tuchel could do us all a favour by taking a look at whether Trent Alexander-Arnold is really worth his place. One free-kick apart, he produced his standard substandard performance in an England shirt, a pre-match interview suggesting that he was too good to consider playing in a fixed position (“I play the game, not the position”) was the relevant quote.

This was picked up in an interesting article in the Sunday Times by David Walsh, the gist of which was that too many England players believe the hype the TV companies spout about them. So when they come up against a team like Greece who, to paraphrase Alexander-Arnold’s nonsense, "play the game not the reputation" they come mightily unstuck. Meanwhile, Liverpool supporters are apparently worried Alexander-Arnold might go to Real Madrid. On that showing, Real Madrid’s fans should be more concerned.

And so to us. Wasn’t it nice to be the ones scoring in the first minute for a change? It wasn’t perfect, but there were little spells where we played some decent stuff. It was particularly good to see Jean-Clair Todibo start to settle in and his partnership with Max Kilman is beginning to develop nicely. It is true that Ipswich were poor – and they’ll be relying on other teams being worse than they are if they want to stay up. However, the result didn’t flatter us in the end and it’s just a shame that we had the international break served to interrupt our momentum.

On the injury front Fullkrug will miss out again, “complications” having set in on his dodgy calf muscle. I’m guessing that the Paqueta family turf accountants may already have opened a book on whether we actually see him play again given that the transfer window re-opens in a little more than two months. Other than that it’s a full squad to choose from with no ill-effects being reported from those engaged on international duty.

So hopefully the last two games have seen Mr Lopetegui get a little bit closer to knowing what his preferred line up is likely to be. We will have the usual thing of course with Spurs raising their game against their betters making the match more difficult that it might otherwise be.

With that in mind I think I will plump for a draw. So the £2 that I was going to spend on their best selling video “Tottenham – the Audi Cup Glory Years” (I haven’t got anything that plays Betamax anyway) will instead be taken down to Winston The Turf Accountant and exchanged in wager on a 2-2 draw.

Enjoy The Game!

When last we met at the Toilet Bowl: Won 2-1 (Premier League Dec 2023)

Romero gave the home side a half-time lead but they failed to add to the tally. Bowen capitalised on some hilariously awful defending to level. Did I say Hilariously awful? Well it was nothing as the ‘keeper made a mess of a hospital back-pass under pressure from Bowen. Sticking the ball into the empty net was too easy for Ward-Prowse who elected instead to play a one-two off the goalpost as Bowen cleverly stayed out of it all to avoid being caught offside. So long and thanks for all the points.

Danger Man: Brennan Johnson

On a run of six in six at present, though on past form it will be journeyman Solanke who may cause issues.

Referee: Andrew Madley

Last seen at Anfield where he refused three penalties that he would have given without hesitation had they occurred up the other end. Also allowed a goal so offside it was visible from outer space, though he can blame his lino for that one. And because VAR wasn’t in operation it didn’t count towards the shameful propaganda that masquerades as statistics in the bent world of PGMOL. Large G&Ts all round then eh Mr Webb.

Percy and Daisy’s Tottenham Fact Of The Week Type Thing

Tottenham are the current holders of the Audi Cup, a pre-season tournament that was held until 2019. Having seen their trophy won by Spurs, Audi seem to have been so embarrassed by their flagship tournament being won by them it looks like they pulled their sponsorship in the hope nobody would notice, and the cup hasn’t been played for since. Still I believe they do a nice video of it on Betamax.

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