Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United
There are six London representatives in the Premiership, half of whom will be contesting an FA Cup semi-final this weekend and half whom are merely playing out the season. Unfortunately for Spurs and West Ham fans, their teams fall into the latter category along with Charlton.
However, the Hammers faithful have plenty to be smiling about after witnessing their side evolve over the course of the campaign. The East End outfit were bottom of the table after four games and spent endless weeks bobbing around the lower echelons of the division. They had to wait until the final week of February before finally edging into the top 10 and now sit in a season best seventh place.
If West Ham's was a gradual rise to meteoric heights under the new and untried management of Glenn Roeder, then Tottenham's season has petered out into insignificance by comparison, under namesake Hoddle. Following an uncertain start to 2001-02 the Lilywhites became a permanent fixture in top half of the table, peaking in fifth place at the start of December. But a failure to register back-to-back victories for two months has left Spurs with nothing to show for their earlier efforts.
March brought three defeats on the trot with not a single goal throughout this demoralising period. They have since made amends by averaging 1.5 strikes per game in the four matches following this barren spell, yet only six other top-flight sides have landed fewer shots on target than Tottenham this term.
In contrast, the visitors have won four of their last five league contests in a row, maintaining three clean sheets in the process. David James made the number one jersey his own in Opta's most recent Premiership team of the week after keeping Charlton at bay with six stops and he will be keen to record a third successive shut out. A 78% saves-to-shots ratio should help him achieve that goal should he manage to maintain it.
The Hammers' have a proud home record this season and their incentive this Saturday will be to avenge a 1-0 defeat that Spurs inflicted upon them at Upton Park back in November. Full-back Nigel Winterburn confirmed that the players are still up for a fight even if silverware is out of the equation: "The season can go a little bit dead but, to be fair, the lads are well up for the rest of the games and we want to finish in that seventh place if we can."
No doubt the north Londoners will be fighting tooth and nail for a victory that would see them leapfrog their capital rivals in the table. Don't anticipate a glut of goals, but expect to witness a committed display from both sides that belies their somewhat irrelevant positions.
Mark Willis
Match referee: N. Barry
Neale Barry takes charge of his sixteenth Premiership match of the season at White Hart Lane on Saturday and so far has enjoyed a relatively low key campaign. He currently occupies a place in the lower echelons of the referees' chart and shouldn't receive too much bother from two sides battling it out for seventh position.
Referee's Name FoulsPenaltiesYellow CardsRed CardsAve
Disc pointsN. Barry 473 2 37 2 40.13
PLAYER HEAD-TO-HEAD
click below for in-depth comparisonZiege v Winterburn
TEAM NEWS
Glenn Hoddle has plenty on his defensive plate ahead of the visit of Glenn Roeder's side with Dean Richards and Ledley King his primary concerns. The former is definitely out with a strained hamstring, while King is rated 50-50 with a bruised calf. Steffen Iversen and Anthony Gardner are hoping to shake off a touch of flu.
England Under-21 striker Jermain Defoe will take over from West Ham captain Paolo di Canio. The Italian is suffering from a knee injury. Slovakian left-back Vladimir Labant is likely to return in place of veteran Nigel Winterburn.
MATCH BETTING
click on links below to place a wager + more markets
Match Result
Tottenham 5/6
Draw 9/4
West Ham 11/4
Correct Score
Tottenham 1-0 6/1
Tottenham 2-0 13/2
Tottenham 2-1 7/1
Tottenham 3-0 12/1
Tottenham 3-1 12/1
Tottenham 3-2 25/1
Tottenham 4-0 33/1
Tottenham 4-1 28/1
Tottenham 4-2 50/1
Tottenham 5-0 100/1
Tottenham 5-1 100/1
Draw 0-0 8/1
Draw 1-1 11/2
Draw 2-2 14/1
Draw 3-3 50/1
West Ham 1-0 8/1
West Ham 2-0 16/1
West Ham 2-1 12/1
West Ham 3-0 40/1
West Ham 3-1 33/1
West Ham 3-2 33/1
West Ham 4-0 100/1
West Ham 4-1 100/1
West Ham 4-2 100/1
Double Result
Tottenham/Tottenham 11/5
Tottenham/Draw 16/1
Tottenham/West Ham 33/1
Draw/Tottenham 7/2
Draw/Draw 7/2
Draw/West Ham 7/1
West Ham/Tottenham 25/1
West Ham/Draw 16/1
West Ham/West Ham 6/1
First Goalscorer
T Sheringham 5/1
S Iversen 5/1
S Rebrov 6/1
G Poyet 9/1
M Etherington 14/1
D Anderton 14/1
O Leonhardsen 14/1
C Ziege 14/1
T Sherwood 16/1
S Clemence 16/1
S Davies 16/1
G Doherty 33/1
D Richards 33/1
L King 33/1
B Thatcher 40/1
C Perry 50/1
A Thelwell 50/1
A Gardner 50/1
No Goalscorer 8/1
F Kanoute 6/1
J Defoe 13/2
P Kitson 7/1
R Garcia 9/1
T Sinclair 14/1
J Cole 16/1
M Carrick 16/1
S Lomas 20/1
J Moncur 20/1
L Courtois 20/1
V Labant 25/1
I Pearce 25/1
S Schmemel 33/1
T Repka 40/1
S Minto 40/1
N Winterburn 50/1
C Dailly 50/1
H Foxe 50/1
For all these bets + much more go now to surreySPORTS.co.uk