Mourinho to receive baptism of fire against Hammers

West Ham face Spurs at London Stadium on Saturday lunchtime with the Hammers winless in their last six top flight games while Spurs haven’t won away from home since January in the league and, like the Hammers, have just three victories in 12 this season so far.

However, Spurs have acted on their poor form so far by firing Mauricio Pochettino earlier this week and acting swiftly to replace him with Jose Mourinho on a three-year contract. The Portuguese boss will be in the dugout for the game this weekend.

Manuel Pellegrini hasn’t seen his team pick up a victory since beating Manchester United on September 22 and has watched his team plummet from fifth in the table to 16th in between the previous two international breaks.

His job isn’t in any immediate danger but he needs to turn around the results drastically and get his players back on form after some extremely disappointing displays in their last six games.

The Hammers boss suffered an injury blow prior to the break as Manuel Lanzini underwent surgery on a fractured collarbone which could rule him out for the rest of 2019. On the flip side, Michail Antonio is back in training and is fit for this weekend though his inclusion from the start is rated at 50/50. Likewise Noble, who has recovered from a twisted ankle sustained against Burnley.

Our team shows one change from the disappointing 3-0 defeat to Burnley last time out as we have brought back Andriy Yarmolenko for Pablo Fornals in the midfield.

Read Also:How Silver’s inspiring talks gingered us against Hammers – Iwobi

The big news in our team is that gaffe-prone Roberto keeps his place in goal ahead of David Martin. It’s more out of necessity than choice as the manager is unlikely to throw his third-string stopper into the fray despite Roberto’s severe struggles since replacing Lukasz Fabianski.