Added motivation? Ex-West Ham star admits Hammers will want to send sorry Spurs down as Premier League relegation battle intensifies

Rock-bottom Wolves have been showing signs of life over recent weeks, but have probably left themselves with too much to do. The trapdoor is also creaking open below Burnley, with the Clarets in serious danger of yo-yoing back into the Championship.

That leaves one place in the drop zone to be filled, with most teams having nine games left to take in this season. As things stand, just three points separate West Ham in 18th from Leeds in 15th. Sandwiched between them are two teams that know all about taking a tumble in Spurs and Nottingham Forest.

Tottenham stumbled their way to a 17th-place finish last term, but savoured the consolation prize of Europa League glory - as Ange Postecoglou brought the club’s 17-year wait for major silverware to a close and secured Champions League qualification.

His reward for that success was a summer sacking, with Thomas Frank having headed in the same direction since then. There has also been managerial change at West Ham - as Nuno Espirito Santo now calls the shots - while Forest are onto their fourth manager of the season.

West Ham are the ones that appear to have the most wind in their sails, as Spurs struggle to stay afloat, and Harewood admits that the Hammers would welcome any opportunity to condemn geographical rivals to a demotion that could be considered the biggest shock in Premier League history.

Speaking in association with Non Gamstop Casino, Harewood told GOAL when asked if that opportunity will be serving as added fuel to the West Ham fire: “Yeah, 100%. If you can see them in your sights, I don't think anything else will spur you on at the moment because you can see the way that Spurs have been playing. I feel sorry for them at the moment because you don't want to see players walking off the pitch after 15 minutes and all that sort of stuff. You can just see things spiralling. 

“And for West Ham, to see stuff like that happen, you want to capitalise on situations. And you can see them on the up. Just the performances that they've been playing for the last four or five games, you can see them getting stronger and stronger. And the confidence is key.

“All of them seem very confident. It seems like they're doing their job, scoring goals. It's just one of those things. And you want that for your team. Tottenham and the teams above, they're struggling at the moment. And West Ham have got momentum going when playing games.”

Another former Hammers striker, Jeremie Aliadiere, told GOAL recently of West Ham and Spurs needing to avoid any notion of being “too good to go down”. The Frenchman said: “It is an issue and I've been in a relegation team with Middlesbrough when I got relegated and I thought that we're too good to go down. But when you are dragged down to that level, there's no more playing football, there's no more quality, there's no more talent. It's all about graft and believing and fighting. Fighting as a unit, as a group and that's the problem.

“I look at Spurs as well and obviously, no disrespect to the other side of London and the other club, but that is the problem they've got. You've got players in there that think they're too good to get relegated but you're the players that got in this position in the first place so you've got to get out of it.

“As a player, when you think ‘I'm too good for this club, I'm too good for this battle’, it's a problem because you're not thinking the right stuff. The right stuff is: ‘I've got my team there, I've got to get them out. Boys, we've got to stick together here and get ourselves out of this, get this club that gave us a lot. We can't take that club down’.

“That's a massive individual mental strength to have as a player and as a club and sometimes managers are doing everything they can but they're not the ones playing every weekend. They obviously make the decision on the starting 11 but at the end of the day, it's the 11 men that are on that pitch that need to play for each other, help each other out and grind. When you're down there, every game, just battle - absolute fire.”

West Ham and Tottenham both have tough games to come this weekend, with the Hammers preparing to play host to title-chasing Manchester City on Saturday while Spurs face a daunting trip to reigning champions Liverpool on Sunday.