West Ham boss Slaven Bilic expects best behaviour from fans during Spurs game
West Ham have urged their fans to behave during the derby showdown with Tottenham on Wednesday night.
The fixture has been marred in the past by incidents of anti-Semitic chanting as well as violence, with one man stabbed before the meeting at White Hart Lane in November.
The Upton Park return promises to be a fiery encounter with the stakes high for both sides - Spurs are challenging for the title while West Ham still have an outside chance of a top-four finish.
And Hammers manager Slaven Bilic wants the match to be memorable for what happens on the pitch, rather than off it.
"It's a big match for both clubs," he said. "No matter where you are standing in the table, or whether it's the first game of the season or the last game of the season, it's a big, big derby.
"The message is I would like the fans to be behind us, to be behind the team, behind the club in a positive way.
"The fans are ambassadors of our club and they can show the world that we are big, great and a polite club."
On the pitch Bilic could welcome back striker Diafra Sakho after three months out injured. But defender Sam Byram is suspended so winger Michail Antonio, last weekend's goal hero in the win over Sunderland, may have to start at right-back.
Antonio's Homer Simpson-style celebration against the Black Cats raised a laugh - but Bilic insists that is where the comparisons end.
"I'm a big fan of The Simpsons but I wouldn't connect him with Homer Simpson," he smiled. "They are completely different. Homer is lazy, Antonio is a workaholic."
Meanwhile, Mauricio Pochettino has laughed off Claudio Ranieri's suggestion that his Tottenham side are title favourites and insists Leicester are under just as much pressure in the race at the top.
Spurs sit two points behind league leaders Leicester ahead of two crunch London derbies, this midweek trip before the grudge match on Saturday against Arsenal.
Ranieri has downplayed his side's chances of being crowned champions in May and instead said it is Spurs who should be considered odds-on to lift the trophy. Pochettino, however, was not convinced.
"Mind games? No, it was a joke. I laughed a little bit," Pochettino said. "In football it is good to play a little bit like this too. Our objective at the end of last season was clear, to reduce the gap with the teams at the top."
Pochettino added: "For me Leicester are at the top and they have the pressure too like all the teams below. We don't feel that.
"Only for us it is important to keep our level, our fitness, our mentality and we'll see what happens. It's too soon to speak about the end of the season."
Pochettino's men have not lost away from home in the league since the first day of the season but they may have to do without Dele Alli at Upton Park, as the midfielder struggles to overcome a foot injury.
Alli kicked the ground during the warm-up before Tottenham's win over Swansea on Sunday and while he played the whole 90 minutes of the match, he was later seen limping heavily when he left the stadium.
Mousa Dembele is out with a groin strain but could return in time for Arsenal at the weekend while Tom Carroll is available again after recovering from an Achilles injury.
"Dele had a problem before the game against Swansea," Pochettino said. "During the game he suffered some different things. We need to assess him tomorrow and then decide.
"Mousa is nearly back, maybe for the next game, but he is still out."
West Ham are gunning for Champions League football themselves as they sit sixth, four points behind fourth-placed Manchester City.
The Hammers will also be eager to put a dent in Tottenham's title ambitions and Pochettino expects a hostile atmosphere in both his side's next two matches.
"It is a very important game, a derby, and you cannot split the emotion from the game," Pochettino said. "'It is not only a game. It is not only three points, it means a lot more than three points because every time you play a derby like West Ham or Arsenal it is more important for our supporters and we feel the same."
Source: PAR
