Tottenham's pocket rockets will try and take the Premier League by storm the Barcelona way, says Harry Redknapp. Spurs top the table thanks to their win at West Ham and while Redknapp laughed off comparisons with the great Double-winning side of 1960-61, he did reveal he wants his team to emulate the European champions in the way they play.

His Tottenham tots may not quite yet be in the Andres Iniesta or Lionel Messi league but nine points from their first three games is the perfect start.

Redknapp's team had to put in a heavy shift in the sun though, to overcome a brave challenge from the Hammers.

If the otherwise excellent Carlton Cole hadn't blown a circuit and somehow contrived to send a suicidal pass straight to the twinkle toes of Jermain Defoe, West Ham may have won this cut and thrust London derby.

Instead Cole, who had earlier scored the best goal of the game, held his head in anguish while Spurs celebrated Defoe's equaliser and then pushed on to win with an excellent Aaron Lennon cross shot 11 minutes before the end.

“I'm playing with four forwards but they're all tiny lads,” said Redknapp. “We must be the smallest forward line in the world with Luka Modric, Aaron Lennon, Robbie Keane and Defoe.

“The role model is Barcelona. You only have to look at them last year, the way they press teams with their midfield.

“They were a small team but they pressed you, worked you when they didn't have the ball and they ended up European champions without being a physical team.

“You need that work rate to win back the ball when you haven't got it. You don't need to be a giant to do that and we've worked hard at pressing teams. I thought we did it well against Liverpool in the first game.”

With 6ft 7ins Peter Crouch on the bench, Redknapp's faith in his dimiutive frontline — Modric is the tallest at 5ft 8ins and Lennon the shortest at 5ft 5ins — is certainly paying off.

Although the boss is making no firm predictions about a possible top-four finish he does think it is a realistic aim. He said: “Manchester City will be pushing to be a top-four team and there's no reason why we can't push as well.

“We only lost one home game last season and with the start we've had we have a bit of belief.”

While Redknapp was spoilt for choice in the striker department, with Crouch and Roman Pavlyuchenko on the substitutes' bench, West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola had just one, hero/villain Cole.

Watched by England coach Fabio Capello, Cole turned in another muscular display of awesome strength and good, close control.

It is a pity this match will remembered for his 54th-minute howler because before and afterwards, he gave the Spurs defence many problems.

For most of the time he was a one-man forward line, a situation which is becoming increasingly frustrating for Zola.

The manager and his assistant Steve Clarke are squeezing the absolute best out of his squad but he admits he is in desperate need of new recruits.

“All I am hoping is that we're going to get some support for Carlton,” he said. “It might be necessary to lose someone in the process but the club know what we need and if we have just a little more, we could be challenging for the significant places.

“I have told Carlton to stop feeling sorry. He scored an unbelievable goal but lost concentration for a second.

“I don't believe we deserved to lost this game.

Every time they had a chance, we had a chance but the reason why the Premier League is so good is because there are such good players and if you make a mistake, they punish you.

“Tottenham have a team who can challenge for the top four. We made two mistakes and they punished us.”