Ben & Rob's preview - West Ham

N17 Live presenter Ben Haines and Club commentator Rob Daly look back at Forest and ahead to another cracker in the Premier League this evening (Wednesday, 7.45pm) as we take on West Ham at the London Stadium.

Take it away, chaps!

Rob Daly

"Two more goals for Harry Kane. Another win. 10 points from 12 games. It is Spurs’ best start to a season in 13 years. While I think there are areas where the team will improve, it’ll be extremely pleasing to Antonio Conte, I’m sure, that the pre-season hope and hype has been lived up to so far and a flat start has been avoided. Forest wasn’t easy out of possession. They worked the ball well and the mobile front three of Johnson, Lingard and Gibbs-White caused problems - but Conte’s players were willing to suffer with the reward being a host of chances at the other end. Yes, it finished 2-0, but it could have been more. Oh, and Richarlison! From his dreamy outside-of-the-boot assist to Kane, to some casual keepy-uppies minutes later, there is no doubt he has caught the eye already!

"For West Ham, three defeats was a rough start - so the Aston Villa win on Sunday will be a huge relief. I commentated on their UEFA Conference League win at Viborg last week. While it didn’t feel like much of an indicator of what state the team is in given the team was heavily rotated, there was a lovely goal from new striker Gianluca Scamacca; a smart near post run and volley. Saying that, I would be surprised if it wasn’t Michail Antonio up front on Wednesday night given his record against Spurs. They’ve spent big - and have a squad to compete domestically and in Europe. But there’s no doubt they’ve signed a star of a player in Lucas Paqueta. A 25-year-old regular starter for Brazil who can play in a variety of attacking midfield roles. Finally, what a boost it was too for the club to complete that permanent deal to sign Cuti Romero. An elite defender, who - if he's fit and ready to return - would relish the fight involved in a midweek London derby."

Ben Haines

"This has been a really interesting start to the season, hasn’t it? You still get the impression that we've only really hit top gear in two or three patches so far. When we do, we’re absolutely breathtaking, but probably more importantly when we don’t we’re still incredibly solid defensively, functional through the spine of the team and in control of our shape. And with 10 points from a possible 12 it’s hard to ask for much more! Would we all love to see Spurs just smash teams week after week? Of course, but in the Premier League that’s firstly unrealistic and secondly, it's not been what any of the sides that are going to challenge for the title this year are doing. The atmosphere at The City Ground so far this season has been incredibly good which makes it all the more impressive the way we just got on with the job. Forest enjoyed some really attractive spells of possession - and the atmosphere no doubt helped them press us to the point where retaining the ball was difficult - but, at the same time, we’re so ruthless on the counter attack at the moment that it felt as if we were looking to play more direct forward passes to try and spring free. That comes with the caveat that they have a lower percentage chance of making the target - but when they do come off and we create a situation where we have our front three facing their opposite number we almost always create a dangerous chance.

"And so we roll onto the London Stadium, and the second of our big derby days this season. It feels as though West Ham are struggling to find the version of them that carried the team so well through the early stages of last year. It's probably a little unfair to judge them off the back of losing to City with Haaland's movement and finishing, and to Forest after an incredibly tight game. The Brighton game at home felt like a real slog. It suddenly put quite a bit of pressure on them away to Villa - which I think it's fair to say wasn't one for the purists. Having said that they won't care one jot after seeing Pablo Fornals' shot loop in to give them three points. West Ham is one of the most emotionally charged games in the calendar but on current form the last thing we want to do is to get into a game that reflects an FA Cup-style winner take all shoot-out. Calm heads are needed and another professional performance required... and, say it quietly, an already exciting start begins to look even more promising!"