Dave Kemp: West Brom are expecting some 'extreme' sport

According to Albion's assistant boss, no team in the league can switch the play from one side of the pitch to the other quite like Spurs.

"Their style of play is to stretch you," he says. "They will hit passes to the player that's furthest away.

"Other teams give you a chance by playing shorter passes and then you can recover, but Tottenham are good at stretching you in one pass."

In December, the Baggies nearly won a hard-earned point at Stamford Bridge thanks to a heroic defensive effort that dragged wingers Chris Brunt and Matt Phillips so far back the visitors were practically playing a back six.

But it did the job and nullified Antonio Conte's wing-backs before Diego Costa's late winner.

Even though Spurs usually play a back four, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker are just as likely to bomb on as Victor Moses or Marcos Alonso, sprinting up and down the touchline at breakneck pace in an effort to exploit every blade of grass.

"Others don't have their full-backs pushed on so high and wide as Tottenham do, they're extreme," says Kemp.

But recently, Albion have been better than most at dealing with Mauricio Pochettino's team. The last three meetings between the two have finished in 1-1 draws, and Tottenham needed a late Dele Alli equaliser in October to avoid defeat at The Hawthorns.

But Spurs will be eager to get revenge for the game at White Hart Lane in April, when their title hopes faded beyond repair.

"We've done very well against them," said Kemp. "They're very difficult to play against by the way. But we nearly nicked a win last time. It was a good game at White Hart Lane last year. You could argue we could've won that too. At the end we were the team looking most likely. They'll be on their toes this time, they know they'll be getting a good game.

"The key is being disciplined," he added. "A lot of these teams now play different shapes and you have to prepare yourself for that."

Albion's wingers will probably be asked to recreate the back six seen at Stamford Bridge in an effort to frustrate Spurs before hitting them on the break.

The Baggies will be without Jonny Evans, who hasn't recovered from his calf injury in time, and may also be missing Allan Nyom from the back four.

Albion have still not received written confirmation from the Cameroon FA that they can play Nyom during January, even though he wasn't named in their squad for the Africa Cup of Nations.

However, Chris Brunt has recovered from his stiff back and is in line to play at left-back with James McClean keeping his place at left wing.

"We're a little bit disappointed Jonny won't be fit, because we need our quality players in the team, especially against the top teams," said head coach Tony Pulis.

"We've still got that issue with Nyom, that's still rolling, we're not sure if it's going to be settled before the game of afterwards.

"Again that's something I can't comment on quite yet. We might be two players down from a back four that would be our first choice."

Albion's encouraging season hit a divot last weekend when they were disappointingly dumped out of the FA Cup by Derby County.

Kemp hopes that hasn't derailed the fine league form that has put the Baggies on course for a record points tally, but he refused to talk about targets for the season.

"Our target is to win on Saturday," he said. "It's an 18-game season if you want to look at it like that. We need to apply ourselves in all 18 games and if we do that, we'll have a decent points tally at the end of the season and we'll see where that takes us."