London derbies are always difficult matches, more so if it is against West Ham. For some reason, West Ham seems to hate us greatly. They always seem to lift their game against us. But we have good record against them in recent years. Since that disappointing Lasagna gate loss, we have won 9, drew 2 and lost 1 against them. We need to continue that good record in this match. Since we are at home, there is no excuse not to win this match. Will prefer a comfortable win but won't mind how we win as long as we win. Just hope we can keep a clean sheet.
Will prefer Defoe to start in attack. Defoe has an excellent record against West Ham which is also his former team. Defoe has scored 6 goals against them over the years. Afterall, Defoe is in good goal scoring form so far this season, albeit all in Cup matches. If he is to start a league match, this match will be the perfect match to do so. Soldado has not scored in 4 matches now. I think it will be better if Soldado comes on as a sub in this match. But if Soldado does starts, hope he will score for once ! Going 4 matches without a goal is simply too long for our main striker. Really wish Lamela will get more time to show his worth in the league. He showed his quality by setting up the goal against Cardiff. But he needs more game time to prove his worth to us.
Apart from Bale last season, it has been a long time since we had a consistent goal scorer from midfield. Sigurdsson has done well to be our top scorer in the league with 3 goals. But he needs to improve his long range shots which always hit the posts. He would have more than 3 goals if all his shots had gone in instead of hitting the posts. For all his pace and dribbling skills, I think Townsend needs to assist others to score goals instead of trying to score himself. Always find it annoying to see Townsend trying to imitate Bale in scoring long range goals. I think Townsend would be a better player if he tries to set up others to score instead. Also want to see more impact from Eriksen like Ozil does for Arsenal. We can really do with more creativity from Eriksen to help our attacks. I think we will have better chance to win this match if Paulinho and Dembele win the midfield battle.
Our defence have really done well to keep many clean sheets this season. So, will be very disappointed if we don't keep a clean sheet against West Ham at home now. There is no reason why we cannot stop West Ham scoring as they are still struggling so far. Just hope Lloris and company won't get complacent in this match. Wish Rose is fit for this match as Naughton doesn't look too convincing in his place. Hope Vertonghen and Dawson will keep the West Ham attacks in check. Vertonghen has rode his luck a few times already this season. Hope he will continue to be lucky.
We should be beating teams like West Ham at home if we want to stay in the battle for top place. We can't afford to drop points against bottom team like West Ham. Just hope we will turn up with the right mentality and perform well from start to finish. A big win will be a bonus but will accept another simple 1-0 win again. Really don't care how we play as long as we win !