Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas has predicted that West Ham will knock Tottenham Hotspur out of the Carabao Cup for the second year running on Wednesday.
The bitter London rivals meet for the second time in two weeks at the London Stadium tomorrow evening, with the Hammers looking to repeat last season’s 3-2 triumph at this exact stage of the competition.
Nicholas has now delivered his prediction for the game, foreseeing a 2-1 win for the Irons to avenge their recent 1-0 loss in the Premier League, with Spurs rotation highlighted as the key factor.
In his predictions for Sky Sports, he said: “Playing on Monday night forces Mauricio Pochettino’s hand here as he’ll have to make big changes and give the youngsters a run out because the squad just isn’t big enough.
“It’s a tough one for him now as even winning this competition won’t really prove anything as he’s lifted Spurs to challenging for the title and playing in the Champions League.
“I still think West Ham are improving generally and they’re another team who should be going all out to win this thing so because of that and the changes Spurs will have to make, I think the Hammers can get through.”
OPINION
This is an interesting prediction from Nicholas, who is absolutely spot on about inevitable Tottenham rotation. Their match against Manchester City last night saw Pochettino field a strong team, and one which unfortunately could not get anything from the game against the defending champions. That is likely to see wholesale changes made to his starting lineup, including a possible debut for midfielder Oliver Skipp. That being said, Pochettino should still be able to field a relatively strong XI even with a lot of rotation, and can most definitely put out a team capable of beating the Hammers again. Nicholas’ second claim about the fact that winning this competition would not prove anything is questionable when you consider that Spurs have not won any silverware in more than ten years now. Ask any Spurs fan and they would absolutely want to win this competition, just to prove they are ready to win those bigger competitions.