West Ham’s starting line-up against Tottenham

Saturday is almost upon us. The beautiful game is finally back, and with our return to football come so many questions; will Spurs finally be ready to stand up to our brave Hammers? Will Sam Allardyce field a second striker? Will the handrail in front of my seat have been repainted?

The most crucial question is, of course, this: “how would you expect/like West Ham to line-up against Spurs?” which just so happens to be the question I was asked for the article this week. Now I might add that the difference between the words ‘like’ and ‘expect’ is pretty vast. For example, I’d LIKE for us to start James Rodriguez in midfield and pop Thomas Müller up front; but I EXPECT that Kevin Nolan and Carlton Cole will be fulfilling those respective positions instead.

I have a pretty strong idea of who will be starting for West Ham, but I feel odd about my expectations.

Starting between the sticks, I expect to see a familiar Spanish face. Although he was shaky in pre-season, Adrian should retain his place in goal. He didn’t seem to take pre-season seriously, but I’ve never doubted his commitment in competitive football.

Defensively, Aaron Cresswell, Winston Reid, James Tomkins and Guy Demel should feature. I can’t see Joey O’Brien being first choice this year, but you know Sam; the man’s full of surprises. Whilst James Collins and Tomkins ended their season on a high regarding their partnership, I expect Reid to retain his first team position while he has yet to sign a contract extension. He’s hardly going to want to stay if he’s sitting on the bench, is he?

We’ll see a very familiar midfield in Mark Noble, Mohamed Diame and chicken-dancing captain Kevin Nolan, with Stewart Downing and Matt Jarvis on the wings. Carlton Cole will cut a lone figure up front; and here I begin to feel odd about the team I expect to start.

Arguably, we’ve had a decent influx of players this summer. Sure, “Superman” Enner Valencia and loan Arsenal Super-Fan Carl Jenkinson aren’t match fit, but we also signed Diego Poyet, Mauro Zarate, and Cheikhou Kouyate. We’ve made some decent signings, but yet I can only see one of them – Cresswell – getting into the team against Spurs.

It seems a bit odd to me that we’ve made such ‘progress’ with the team, but yet we’ll most likely end up putting out a nearly identical team to last season. I’d rather Kouyate for Diame, Valencia or Zarate for Carlton, and anyone – even Satan himself – for Kevin Nolan, but I don’t see Sam Allardyce shifting from his usual West Ham starters to gamble with new blood against Spurs. The man fears change.

The other side to the coin is that these are players who did manage to beat Spurs three times last year, so it’s not their first rodeo- they do know what to do out there. At the end of the day, it’s the result that’s important, so hopefully the players we put out there are ready to fight for it, and kick our season off with a brilliant three points.

Who are you expecting to see start on Saturday? What do you think our strongest eleven is – is it our ‘old guard’ or should we be looking towards the future? Do let us know below.