Mark Lawrenson has claimed that West Ham’s Europa League tie against Sevilla on Thursday will have taken a lot out of the Hammers players ahead of their trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.
Tottenham’s Champions League qualification hopes seemed as though they were hanging by a thread when the Lilywhites were beaten at Old Trafford last week.
However, a win over Brighton on Wednesday and Arsenal’s defeat at home to Liverpool has blown the race for fourth spot wide open once again.
Spurs now have another proverbial six-pointer against West Ham coming up, with the Hammers currently having amassed the same number of points as the North Londoners, having played a game more.
David Moyes’ side will be buoyed by their 2-0 win over Sevilla, which saw them progress to the quarter-finals of the Europe League.
However, Lawrenson believes that the extra days’ rest will give Antonio Conte’s men the advantage going into the London derby.
The pundit told BBC Sport: “Tottenham are still very up and down in terms of results but I don’t think they played too badly in defeat against Manchester United last weekend, and they were decent in their win over Brighton on Wednesday.
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“Like Leicester, West Ham are also in European action on Thursday and I think their tie with Sevilla will have taken a lot out of them. That’s why I’m going with a Spurs win. Prediction: 2-1.”
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We certainly cannot afford to underestimate West Ham, who have shown that they are resolute defensively and have the quality to hurt us on the counter-attack. We have tended to struggle to create chances against teams who defend in a low block and so, Sunday’s game will not be straight-forward.
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