BIG-SIX SHAMS BEWARE... MOYES HAS FOUND NEW SPIRITUAL HOME

ONE of the Big Six will be appearing at the London Stadium this afternoon.

Toss a coin to decide which team best fits that billing.

Because right now, as they prepare to meet West Ham, what gives Tottenham any more of a right than today’s hosts to be counted as one of the so-called elite half-dozen?

Spurs were part of the Super League plot and have a belting stadium. Those are the strongest of their credentials.

But West Ham are filling a 60,000-seater arena, lie only a point behind Spurs in the table – having finished three points ahead last season – and are flying in the Europa League.

And, most importantly, the Hammers have a manager who appears to have found a second spiritual home.

After the win at his first spiritual home last weekend, David Moyes (right) spoke about wanting to challenge the top four. It is hardly a quantum leap in ambition, but it is a step up from the stuff about managing expectations that was his speciality for some time.

And, of course, it is more than realistic. In fact, if you had to back one London team to fill the fourth spot behind the Premier League’s three outstanding sides, West Ham would be as good a bet as anyone – never mind their recent 2-1 home defeat by Brentford.

Certainly as good a bet as today’s opponents, and certainly as good a bet as Arsenal. But it is not just last season’s finishing order that shows the direction the club is heading in. One of the things that must really annoy West Ham fans is the repeated suggestion from some pundits that Declan Rice should – sooner rather than later – move on. Ex-manchester United players seem intent on telling Rice he should head to Old Trafford – presumably to benefit from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s brilliant coaching and management. But on a serious note, there is a chance Rice might fancy somewhere with the global pull of United or somewhere, like Manchester City, with the guarantee of Champions League football and trophies.

But it is certainly no longer a ‘no-brainer’ move.

Such is West Ham’s steady development under Moyes that their place in the pecking order is changing.

Would a move to Spurs or to Arsenal be seen as a step up for any of Moyes’s players? Not at all. At best, it would be a sideways shuffle.

If Rice ever leaves, it will not be for Spurs or for Arsenal.

Yet they – presumably on the basis of their slightly greater worldwide renown – are seen as members of the Big Six.

Hopefully, that cartel will be broken up, and West Ham are in a great position to do just that, especially with Moyes as boss.

In the same way the Scot ‘got’ Everton and its fans and history, he seems to ‘get’ West Ham and its fans and history. Moyes turns 59 in April and has a deal until the summer of 2024.

It might not be long before they talk about extending that.

He is no longer auditioning for a job at one of the European superpowers.

His focus and grand ambition will be to turn West Ham into some sort of superpower. Sound fanciful? Maybe. And if, in a broad sense, West Ham are ever classed in the same bracket as United, City, Liverpool and the European giants, it will be several generations after Moyes.

Those things take a long, long time.

But, in the meanwhile, if we decide we want to continue to imagine a Big Six in the Premier League, then, of the two teams and managers we will see at the London Stadium today, I know which one I would be backing to cement a place in it.

Moyes has found his second spiritual home.

West Ham can break Big-six cartel