You’ll never, ever, find a match between the 14th place and 16th place sides as hyped up as this! Jose Mourinho is back, and in taking the Tottenham Hotspur job, his CV now boasts of a stint leading half of the Premier League’s big six. His first match is a London derby at West Ham United, and the Hammers’ Social media team didn’t wait long to antagonize him.
Having quickly realized the error of their ways in trolling Mourinho, the WHU Twitter account quickly removed the tweet and the video. Obviously, not much more hype is really needed for this match, so let’s dive right in to the team news for both sides, starting with Spurs.
Erik Lamela, Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm are ruled out for Saturday. Lamela and Lloris are continuing their rehabilitation from hamstring and elbow injuries respectively while Vorm suffered a calf strain in the Monday training session and is now expected out until December.
Elsewhere, club record signing Tanguy Ndombele (groin) and central defender Jan Vertonghen (hamstring) are back in training and face late fitness tests for this one. Shifting over to the hosts, the big news today for the Irons is the return of team captain Mark Noble and winger Michail Antonio.
“Both of them worked with the whole week without any problem,” Pellegrini said of the pair. “They will be involved in the game on Saturday.
“Of course, they are important players for us. Antonio has had a long injury and he is a player that makes a difference in attack.”
“Mark Noble is the captain of the team too. Both of them will be in the squad list and are able to play.”
Noble hobbled out of West Ham’s last Premier League match, a 3-0 lost to Burnley, with an ankle injury while Antonio suffered a hamstring injury in the League Cup win over Newport County. Additionally, midfielder Jack Wilshere trained all week, and now he’s back in the mix too.
Tottenham Hotspur at West Ham United FYIs
Kickoff: Nov. 23, 12:30 pm London Stadium
Starting XI Predictions: Tottenham Hotspur West Ham United
More on the Mourinho hiring: go to this link and also this link
Google’s result probability: Tottenham Hotspur win 54%, Draw 24%, West Ham United victory 22%
Form Guide: Tottenham Hotspur- DDLDL West Ham United- LLDLL
Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 1, West Ham United 0
Mourinho will play uhm, uhh “pragmatic,” but he’ll get the W.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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