West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini hopes the occasion of a London derby against Tottenham will boost players and supporters alike.
While reasoning that an individual match cannot define a season, with only three points at stake in Saturday afternoon’s Premier League game at London Stadium, the Chilean recognised the game holds added sway for all of a Claret and Blue persuasion.
Both teams will go into the contest hoping to address some difficult recent results, but the Hammers have fond recent memories of the fixture.
Michail Antonio became the first visiting player, and West Ham the first visiting team, to score and win at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April, and Pellegrini called on his team to aim for a similar result on Saturday.
“It’s a different game, of course for the fans,” Pellegrini said. “It’s a different game for the Club. Of course, it will be only three points, but all of us know that for our fans it’s good to beat Tottenham.
“We did it last season in their home stadium. I hope that now we are going to do it again against a difficult team.”
When you are winning, of course everything is better, everyone can give a little bit more. When you are losing, it’s more difficult
Manuel Pellegrini
The Hammers have struggled to capitalise on some promising positions in league matches at London Stadium, and go into Saturday’s game seeking their first Premier League win in seven.
The visit of Spurs comes at the end of the final two-week international break of the calendar year, and Pellegrini has been working closely with his squad at Rush Green to prepare them for the exciting contest.
“We have first worked to try to recover the style of football that we are playing,” he said. “We are conceding too many goals and we are not scoring so many goals, because we are not doing things in the correct way, but there are a lot of different reasons why.
“When you are winning, of course everything is better, everyone can give a little bit more. When you are losing, it’s more difficult because, in every mistake you feel that you concede a goal – that’s football.
“I think that we need to play as a team better in defending and attacking – the whole eleven players. The eleven players must defend in the correct moment and correct zone, and after that the eleven players must try to attack in the correct way.”
Kick-off at London Stadium is at 12.30pm.
