‘Credit where it’s due’ – Paul Merson predicts Tottenham vs West Ham score

Paul Merson has praised Tottenham Hotspur for the character they showed to fight back against Manchester City on Sunday but he warned that the result will not mean anything if the Lilywhites fail to beat West Ham United.

Merson was one of several pundits who warned Ange Postecoglou ahead of last weekend’s game that they would be embarrassed if they look to take the game to City at the Etihad (Sky Sports).

The former Arsenal man has had to eat humble pie as Postecoglou stuck to his preferred attacking approach even though he was without several of his key players, and his side emerged with a hard-fought point following a spirited second-half performance.

Spurs will now hope to return to winning ways against their London rivals, and Merson opined that if the North London club do not beat the Hammers, the momentum they build following Sunday’s result would be lost.

Tottenham vs West Ham – What will the score be?

However, the pundit said that he does expect Tottenham to edge out David Moyes’ men.

Merson told Sportskeeda: “This is another difficult game – they’re coming thick and fast for Tottenham. You’ve got to give credit where it’s due – they did well against Man City yesterday.

“They fell behind and came back twice – fair play to them. You’ve got to ride your luck against City, and they picked the right passes on the counter.

“Tottenham were bang unlucky against Chelsea. They’ve had a lot of injuries, and they’ve played against good teams during this period. You can’t afford that against the top teams. If Arsenal had those injuries, they wouldn’t have done well either.

“Tottenham will take a lot of encouragement from the City game, but they’ll need to step up here and get a result against West Ham. If they don’t, the draw against City would’ve been a waste of time. I think this is a good week for Tottenham, and they should be able to defeat West Ham on Thursday.”

Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 West Ham United.

Spurs Web Opinion

Merson’s point is a fair one but I am a lot more confident now that we will have Romero back to marshal our backline. If we can score an early goal against West Ham, I have a feeling that we will be able to blow them out of the water.