SPURT!
Tottenham 1 West Ham 2
Tottenham under Ange are different. But, as their recent home form would suggest, still vulnerable, just like the Good Old Spurs. Even so, this is a fixture I have always found it hard to attend in person, such is the potential pain of defeat over Tottingham. This would explain why tonight, in real time, I am at Rumer’s gig at Indigo at the O2 bathroom hoping, with my phone switched off, that Hammers can manufacture another of those recent Moyes’ miracles.
Fabianski is back in the first team, in pink, as Areola has sprained his wrist after excessive midweek Grand Theft Auto activity on the XBox. West Ham are otherwise at full strength with Zouma returning after a domestic incident in which no house pets were harmed. Romero is also back, for Spurs, after a three match ban, and, somewhat predictably, puts Spurs ahead after ten minutes of sustained 90% possession pressure from the North London side. Ward-Prowse, back defending, is forced to concede Spurs’ second corner from which Romero rises above Aguerd and Álvarez to head home his first ever home goal. Cue the kind of screaming that belies the home fans pre-match protests on X that this is not their cup final.
Within a minute Hammers are stirred into life and the classic assist route of Coufal-cross-Kudus-finish is thwarted by the fact that the striker has moved too soon and is a yard offside. But it’s a positive and ultimately promising response to the goal. Spurs have now scored in the 27th successive game, a new record for them.
‘Somehow you don’t anticipate that Tottenham are going to win this one-nil,’ says Clive Tyldesley, making a welcome return to our screens on the payroll of Amazon Prime, an occasional football channel who don’t waste time (or money) hiring amateurs. Tyldesley’s summariser is Alan Shearer, so the audio has a greatest all stars feel.
West Ham have their first corner seven minutes after the Spurs’ goal, and Zouma gets up well to Ward-Prowse’s near post curler, but can’t do enough to hit the target. Bissouma’s shorts are so long that they almost meet his long socks at the knee joint, making his outfit look like he’s wearing pyjamas. He looks like he’s just come down the stairs to collect an early Amazon home delivery. See what I did there?
By the time we get to 25 minutes, the action has shifted, and West Ham are getting in on the action and possession.
For all the money spent buying exclusive access to the content, Amazon are going with an old school three camera coverage, the wide, the tight and the pitch level. Could be interesting if a VAR incident occurs… maybe the director has gone for a first half pee.
Kudus finds himself straight through on the half hour, but again, he’s offside. Timing those runs as the game develops could prove a match-winning strategy.
The Spurs manager, ‘Ange’ is incredibly only a couple of years younger than Moyes. Perhaps it is the benefit of a disciplined access to the Australian sun that makes him look more like 25 years his opposite number’s junior. It is rather comforting to hear the Spurs’ manager regularly referred to as ‘Ange,’ making him sound like the return of an old favourite to the EastEnders’ film set. Where is ‘Dirty Den’ when you need him to come in as the new Spurs’ number two?
Paquetá is down on 32 minutes and Fornals is being warmed up. The Spaniard may not be finished with his Hammers’ career quite yet. But it all proves a false alarm. It’s a regular early match moment of grass munching with the Brazilian.
West Ham have already played six games more than Spurs this season. Tottingham, like Chelsea and every other London side except Arsenal, are without the European football experience this season. Shame.
Kudus and Coufal are linking well yet again, and Kudus hits a superb cross in which Paquetá, unmarked at the far post, manages only to turn the ball wide with a body dropping mistimed header. Great cross, terrible finish.
Kulusevski hits in a dangerous low cross from the left hand side in injury time that Zouma almost turns into his own net in a diving attempt to clear it, but the ball thankfully just clips the bar and heads over. By the half-time whistle the score still looks just about fair, but with the Hammers breathing down the Tottingham necks.
It was pointed out after the home game against Palace that the Hammers’ most vulnerable period in matches this season is the first ten minutes of the second half, so this is knife edge time. Pedro Porro tries a long shot which is just over Fabianski’s crossbar, and the replay accesses an overhead camera’s view. Looks like the director is finally back from his extended leak.
In the 51st minute Johnson heads across the West Ham area and there is a suggestion of a handball from Coufal. Not given on the field, there is an almost audible sigh from the pitch level cameraman who hasn’t returned from his half time tea and pie in the media tent. Another camera view is eventually offered, but the arm is behind the back, so not intentional. Hah har.
In their presumed confidence that the VAR check would prove profitable, Spurs have left themselves a bit thin at the back, and Bowen finds Kudus with space on the right from which his powerful shot is blocked, ricocheting deliciously back into the path of Bowen, who leathers it gratefully home. I replay the goal several times, delighted in particular to see how enthusiastically it is celebrated by Lucas Paquetá, some twenty yards behind the play.
Jarrod Bowen – double figures for the season and a cool 50 for his career at West Ham.
Seven successive away goals for the England striker – only Robin Van Persie is left in his sights for a new Premier League record.
Hammers are now in the ascendancy, and queuing up to challenge Vicario from the edge of the area, Paquetá seeing his shot well screened and fielded by the Italian. The aggression West Ham are showing is delightful to watch, and forces a string of corners in front of their own fans. Forget thou not: this is the end where West Ham scored three goals in the last eight minutes against Spurs in that memorable 3-3 closed doors game.
The Coufal-Kudus combination is looking more intuitive with every minute of second half play. They are a revelation chapter five verse fourteen. Richarlison appears on the hour. Impact rub-a-dub sub. Fabianski is off his line quickly to stop the danger from a Spurs’ cross and smashes heads in collision with… Souček, who else? But he clears the ball brilliantly.
Richarlison has a brilliant chance ten minutes after coming on, from Porto’s superb cross, but is thankfully profligate at the far post, heading it wide. The miss looks even worse three minutes later when West Ham score a second.
It’s a comedy act. Hammers win a free kick just outside the area when Emerson is fouled following another Spurs’ attack, and Fabianski belts it forward to stretch their defence. Mavropanus’ back pass against Palace from the weekend is duplicated with erroneous finesse by Udogie, and its destiny is tragic for Tottingham, as Bowen is onto it with an alert glee. Although Vicario reaches the ball first, his clearance merely finds Ward-Prowse, whose side foot hits the post but he grabs the rebound to steer it home.
‘It just came apart at the back there,’ says Tyldesley. Oh Clive, you beauty.
West Ham were the first away team to win at the new White Hart Lane, back in April 2019. Tonight they have created another record; they are the first team to inflict a third successive home defeat against Spurs in their new Expansive Threadbare Points Stadium.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 33 Emerson, 4 Kurt Zouma, 19 Edson Álvarez, 27 Nayef Aguerd, 7 James Ward-Prowse, 11 Lucas Paquetá, 14 Mohammed Kudus, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 28 Tomas Souček (captain)
Substitutes: 8 Pablo Fornals
Goalscorers: Jarrod Bowen, James Ward-Prowse
