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West Ham host their London rivals Tottenham on Saturday in the stadium that the two clubs originally fought over, before the Hammers moved in during August 2016, forcing Spurs to build their brand new ground on the site of the old White Hart Lane.

This has certainly added to the rivalry between the two clubs, and both sets of fans will be keen to get one over on the other at 3pm on Saturday.

Tottenham have had their best ever start to a Premier League season, but still only sit in fifth place in the league, behind bitter North London rivals Arsenal on goal difference. The Lilywhites have also suffered somewhat of an injury crisis in the past week or so and have five players out, according to Premier Injuries, with Christian Eriksen and Moussa Dembele set to return.

The Hammers on the other hand started this season poorly with four losses from their first four games, but Manuel Pellegrini's glut of summer signings are now starting to come together and have lost just one of their last five matches in all competitions.

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The East London side have also held Tottenham's top-four rivals Chelsea and beaten Manchester United 3-1 at the London Stadium in recent weeks, so they should be confident heading into this clash.

However, the appointment of Martin Atkinson as referee will worry both sides thanks to the 47-year-old's recent history with their clubs.

West Ham have failed to win their last five home games officiated by Atkinson, and you'd have to go back to January 2015 and to Upton Park to find their last three-points with him in the middle of a home game, which came thanks to a 3-0 win over Hull City.

Things aren't much better for Tottenham though. According to worldfootball.net, in the 21 matches that Atkinson has refereed where Spurs have been the away team, he has sent off three of their players. These came in 2006, 2010 and last year when the Bradford-born ref gave Davinson Sanchez his marching orders against Watford at Vicarage Road.

In terms of Atkinson's personal refereeing statistics this season, he has been fairly middle of the road, but perhaps this weekend will bring some controversy. Out of the 17 referees who have officiated in the Premier League so far during this campaign, Atkinson has been seventh for fouls per game, with 22.63 on average, and sixth for fouls per tackle - proving that he won't be afraid to use his whistle if he feels the derby starts to get overly competitive.

The 47-year-old has also dished out 29 yellow cards in the eight games he has taken charge of so far - the second most in the league and the sixth most per game, so expect to see at least a couple brandished. However he is yet to show a red card which could be music to Mauricio Pochettino's ears given his history with Spurs.

Atkinson seems to be a sensible refereeing appointment for what promises to be a hotly-contested game and hopefully he will allow the game to flow given the strength of both strike-forces. Spurs will be hoping to buck the trend of the away side only winning 13 per cent of Atkinson's games so far this season though, and the Hammers will be looking to right that unfortunate record of not securing a single win at home under him since 2015.

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