Mark Noble suggested that he doesn’t expect the Tottenham players to experience a new manager ‘bounce effect’ at the London Stadium tomorrow.
Jose Mourinho took over from Mauricio Pochettino as Spurs boss on Wednesday morning. And the Hammers will surely expect to face a totally different team now.
West Ham and Tottenham are both inside the bottom half of the table. The London clubs are closer to the relegation spots than they are the European places.
And that would have been unthinkable at the start of the season.
Tomorrow’s game is an incredibly tough one to call.
And when writing his regular column for the Evening Standard, Noble suggested that he isn’t expecting Jose Mourinho to change that much when he brings his new team to east London tomorrow:
“Tomorrow he (Mourinho) makes his debut as Spurs manager against us at the London Stadium and their fans will be expecting a ‘bounce.’ I don’t know if Jose can change much that quickly and what’s more important is that, in a West Ham v Spurs derby, I don’t think it matters much anyway.”
Whether Noble is proven right remains to be seen. The Tottenham players will surely be desperate to impress their new manager, however.
And West Ham will have to be on their very best form if they are to have any chance whatsoever of beating their London rivals.
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