It’s not Harry Kane or Dele Alli who West Ham need to worry about. It’s Christian Eriksen.
That’s the verdict from Michail Antonio as the Hammers winger looks ahead to Saturday’s showdown at the London Stadium.
West Ham effectively ended Tottenham’s title hopes last May when Manuel Lanzini’s goal secured a 1-0 victory.
And it was Antonio who scored the last ever goal for West Ham against their bitter rivals at Upton Park in 2016.
But the winger expects Spurs to pose problems this time and knows Slaven Bilic’s side must pay special attention to Eriksen.
“He’s the player who links everything up,” said Antonio, speaking exclusively to MirrorFootball at EA Sports FIFA 18 launch event in London.
“He’s a constant threat and always making something happen. If he’s not scoring goals, he’s setting them up.
“So even though I believe that Harry Kane and Dele Alli are quality players, Eriksen is the main man for them.
“Right now, it seems like Tottenham are doing a lot better away from home.
“Being away from home will give them that believe that can can play the way they want to and they will definitely give us a game.
“But we’re definitely ready for them and it will be a quality game.
“For us, we just want to win. Get three points. Minimum, go home with a point.”
Antonio believes West Ham have turned a corner following their slow start to the season.
The Hammers lost their opening three Premier League games, shipping 10 goals.
But after beating Huddersfield at home earlier this month, they are now unbeaten in three games in competitions and have not conceded in any of those too.
That has given West Ham - who are 5/1 to beat Spurs at home - confidence that they can once again upset the odds.
“It’s a massive game,” added Antonio.
“But we’re feeling very positive. We’ve had three clean sheets from our last three games.
“We’ve definitely turned a corner. We believe we can go on a nice little run. In the first three games we conceded ten goals.
“But now, in the last three games,we haven’t conceded any. So, we believe that if we don’t concede goals, we will score goals especially with the front six we have.
“Everything’s positive from here and we just want to build on it.”
Michail Antonio was speaking at the launch of EA SPORTS FIFA 18, which is out on September 29th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and all other platforms. To pre-order your Deluxe Edition, head to https://www.easports.com/uk/fifa/buy/united-kingdom’