West Ham’s Andy Carroll can be Tottenham’s nightmare, says Jamie Redknapp

West Ham will be fired up to beat Tottenham again on Saturday – and fit-again Andy Carroll can cause them real problems, says Jamie Redknapp…

While Tottenham have had problems in their Premier League games at Wembley so far, they’ve been good on the road, beating Newcastle and Everton. But on Saturday they will come up against a highly-motivated West Ham team, who ended Spurs’ title challenge at the London Stadium last season.

West Ham bullied Spurs in that 1-0 win in May. Tottenham, who had won nine league games in a row before that, had a powerful team and it shouldn’t have happened to them. But West Ham wanted it more on that Friday night.

Spurs can expect a similar intensity from their hosts this weekend. West Ham will be desperate to get another one over their local rivals.

That’s something Spurs are going to have to get used to. It may not have been the case 10 years ago, but they’re an elite club again and everyone will want to beat them this season. The challenge for Mauricio Pochettino and his players will be finding a way to beat these highly motivated sides.

And there’s some pressure building on Spurs to get on a run already. Their defeat to Chelsea and draws with Burnley and Swansea have left them trailing Manchester City and Manchester United and they don’t want to drop too far behind those two teams, who have looked very impressive in the opening weeks.

However, as well as a motivated West Ham, Spurs are also going to have to find a way of coping with a fit-again Andy Carroll. I think he’s the key player in this game – and he could be a nightmare for the Tottenham centre-backs.

Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen won’t be relishing the task of marking him on Saturday. As a defender, you’d much rather play against Javier Hernandez because you know what he is going to do. Hernandez will be sharp in the box and you have to be alive to any chances he might get. But you’ll be smashed by Carroll.

With the ball constantly coming into the box, he’ll test you physically. He’s old school and there aren’t many forwards like him anymore. Slaven Bilic has said he doesn’t think he can play two up top, so I expect he’ll move Hernandez into a wider position and play Carroll through the centre.

When Carroll is fit, you’ve got to enjoy him, you’ve got to use him. He gives West Ham a real focal point, someone you can get the ball up to, who can hold it up – and who can cause the opposition problems.

West Ham are a different team when he’s fit and firing. The stats back that up. Since he first joined them on loan in August 2012, their win percentage (38% v 26.9%), points per game (1.4 v 1.1) and average goals scored (1.4 v 1.1) are all significantly better when Carroll has been involved.

I’m looking forward to this one. There’s going to be a great atmosphere at the London Stadium and West Ham will need their fans to be right behind them if they are going to keep up a good intensity through the 90 minutes.

If they can do that – and also bring the defensive discipline required by tracking the runs of Dele Alli and cover for the loss of injured James Collins – they can make this a difficult afternoon for Spurs.

Tottenham have to be ready for that, they have to be up for the battle. It’s going to be a tough game. Ultimately I think it will end in a draw – but these passionate derbies are always hard to call!

(c) Sky News 2017: West Ham’s Andy Carroll can be Tottenham’s nightmare, says Jamie Redknapp