White Hart Pain

Paul Merson believes Spurs will be too strong for neighbours West Ham when they clash on Monday.

Spurs to shine in London derby

We have a brilliant derby day in store with London rivals Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham going head to head at White Hart Lane. Spurs are in a rich vein of form but, after holding Chelsea to a draw at Upton Park last week Gianfranco Zola's men will be confident they can kick-start their season with victory in north London. Tune in from 12.45pm on Monday for the thrilling derby. Sky Sports expert Paul Merson gives his views ahead of the game...

Tottenham v West Ham 12.45pm, Mon, Sky Sports 1 & HD1

I watched West Ham play Chelsea the other day and they were outstanding. Chelsea could still be playing there now and they wouldn't have scored from open play. West Ham were very good defensively. However, it's alright playing like that against the likes of Chelsea at home but it's when the lesser teams come to your ground and you've got to attack - that's when West Ham get opened up all over the place. Spurs, meanwhile, are a bag of Revels: you don't know what one you're going to get! From week to week they can become a completely different team - not even in the space of a week. They were beaten by Wolves and then four days later they smashed Manchester City out of sight. But that's Tottenham all over. They don't play football quite the way Arsenal do but, like the top four, they can rip a team apart on their day. They've already beaten Wigan 9-1 and I could imagine them beating a few more teams by six or seven at home later this season. They've also got Niko Kranjcar in top form. He could easily play for any of the top four and for £2million he was an absolute steal. He's an outstanding player. But consistency is the problem with Spurs and it always has been - it was their problem when I first started playing football. The Wolves and Man City results sum Spurs up. MERSON'S MAGIC MAN

Jermain Defoe - He is scoring loads of goals and he is getting a lot of chances at the moment, which shows he is taking up the right positions and playing well. It's when you're not looking like ever scoring as a centre-forward that you have problems. He's got Peter Crouch alongside him who scored a couple the other day, so he will be full of confidence, so I can see it being a long day for West Ham. PREDICTION