Lee Dixon: Spurs to go marching on at the expense of West Ham

 

Tottenham and West Ham play out the final match of this Premier League gameweek at the Boelyn Ground on Monday night. It's a big London derby and there'll be plenty of  passion but Spurs' superior class should edge it, says Lee Dixon

 

Spurs kept the Euro dream alive in midweek and I think they can follow up with a win on the domestic front.

 

It's not going to be easy though. This is probably the one fixture the West Ham support want to win more than any other so the crowd will be up for it and Sam  Allardyce's outfit are decent at home, losing just three times in 13 Premier League matches.

 

But will it be enough? The recent form makes for pretty stark reading - West Ham have lost six of the last 10 league games, while Spurs are undefeated across the same  period. There have been a number of draws in that run but Tottenham are tough to break down and Andre Villas Boas has instilled a real never-say-die spirit in the  Lilywhites as Mousa Dembele showed at Stade Gerland on Thursday night.

 

That strike ended Gareth Bale's phenomenal goalsoring run - six in four games - but clearly he remains the dangerman. Though he drifts across the pitch, popping up  both on the wing and in the middle, Gareth is the focal point of the team and most of their dynamic football comes from him.

 

Importantly for Spurs, Bale does that handy thing of occupying the opposition's thoughts and that creates opportunities for the rest of the team. We had that at  Arsenal with Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry dragging defenders out of position and creating space for someone like Freddie Ljungberg to pop up on a diagonal run and  score a goal.

 

Scoring goals is West Ham's major problem right now - the last time they beat the opposition keeper more than once in the league was against Norwich on new year's day  - and they don't have a great record against Spurs either with Opta telling us they've scored just three times in the last eight games between the two clubs.

 

It's a trend I expect to continue, provided Tottenham can negotiate the early stages of the game. Allardyce will have his team pumped up for this fixture and the  Hammers will go pretty hard at Spurs for the first 20 minutes. They'll be some atmosphere under the floodlights at the Boelyn Ground and it should make for an  entertaining opening.

 

I think Spurs can ride out the storm. They're a well drilled unit at the back and Hugo Lloris is a top keeper. Opta tell us that Tottenham do most of their business  after the break, scoring 73 per cent of their goals in the second half and I see this finishing goalless after the first 45 minutes with Tottenham nicking it with one,  perhaps two, in the second 45.

 

Tottenham have all the momentum going into this fixture and the impetus will be on them to maintain their top-four bid. They should do it, but they might just leave it  late.

 

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