David Moyes says he is confident that Kalvin Phillips will still come good ahead of West Ham’s clash with Tottenham.

London derbies are always special occasions, but none of them quite match playing Tottenham. Given the circumstances, it should be a thrilling game. A win for spurs would see them go level on points with 4th place Aston Villa, while three points for West Ham could be massive in deciding whether they play in Europe next season.

Unfortunately, the Hammers have failed to capitalise on a number of brilliant opportunities this season, with the worst coming last time out against Newcastle. Understandably, David Moyes was far from happy with this result but he does believe there are positives to take from the game. 

“The result was very hard to take, and I still don’t think their second penalty should have been given. In my opinion, Anthony Gordon places his foot and prevents Kalvin Phillips from kicking the ball forward,” he said ahead of the game tonight.

“Overall, I thought we should have been much more physical and harder to play against in the closing stages of the game, and I think the players would agree with that. I have to give Newcastle some credit as well, and it is what it is. It’s a quick turnaround and we’ve got another game now, and we’ll get ourselves ready to go again. It’s a London derby, so hopefully the crowd will be right behind us and we can get out on the front foot.”

“Our attacking players have been very good in recent weeks, and that was the case again against Newcastle at the weekend. I thought some of the individual performances were excellent, and Michail Antonio, Mohammed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen all got on the scoresheet.”

“Mick getting another goal is very important, and he took his chance very well. All round I think our forward play is very good, and hopefully it is again on Tuesday night.”

When it comes to expectations this season, the hope was always that the Irons could get some sort of European football again and, as it stands, they’re on track to do that but they haven’t made it easy on themselves. However, the gaffer believes that it is still within their powers to achieve their goals but that has to start with a positive result today. 

“We did pick up a good win at their place in December. This is an entirely different fixture, but hopefully we can get all three points again.”

“We’ll keep knocking on the door for European qualification, and we’ve got an idea in our heads about how many more points and wins we’re going to need to do that.”

“We’ve just got to keep at it, in every game. We were close to picking up a victory at the weekend, but didn’t quite get over the line, and we have to go again here.”

Obviously there was a lot of controversy surrounding the Newcastle collapse, whether that be the officiating, the substitutes or the performances, but the biggest one came after a video emerged of Kalvin Phillips sticking his middle finger up to a West Ham fan. Moyes does believe he should be punished for this though, in fact he claims that the opposite is required.

“Kalvin Phillips is a human being, and what he needs is support behind him. We’re giving him that, and we’re all going to keep helping him as much as we possibly can.”

“He’s a very good, international footballer,” the Scotsman concluded, “and I’m confident we can still make something of the time we’ve got left with him here.”