SOME OF THE PARTS
West Ham 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1
You could say that a lot of the players enjoying a decent stretch in the Spurs’ first XI might be doing considerably better if they were featuring regularly in David Moyes’ West Ham side. Not a case of big fishes and small pools, more a case of players playing for an extended first team run rather than to show off their individual skills in the sacrifice of team success.
Today’s referee is Craig Pawson, not Dawson. Michail Antonio is starting. Spurs have lost four of their last five. Fornals is also starting. Spurs won 6-1 at Manchester United in October and beat Manchester City 2-0 in November. Mourinho has said, ‘Every game is a must win.’ Then there was that ‘beyond belief’ 3-3 draw last October, straight after the win at Old Trafford. Does any of that mean anything? All I feel before the game is how together West Ham are, and how disparate is Tottingham.
And inside five minutes we have the resolution of some of that. Bowen is forced wide onto his left foot, and curls an inswinging cross that Antonio connects with, hammering home the rebound after Lloris has saved his first shot. Dier and Tanganga find themselves conveniently positioned, frozen, either side of Antonio, looking at each other in disbelief.
Bale has looked lively at times since returning to Spurs, but is ultimately a False 9. By that, I mean in terms of potential versus actual achievement. And he’s still not starting. All that money. And the hair. His two late goals, one in injury time, back in his first Spurs’ spell that won a game 3-2 at Upton Park almost exactly eight years ago still haunt the thoughts of Hammers’ fans, at least the ones who can think back that far.
Impressive start, eh, what? I take a hurried screen shot of the Premier League Table with Hammers in a Champions League position. Hammers continue to enjoy possession for another ten minutes or so, but Spurs eventually settle and start building down both flanks with their treasure chest of low-achievers awaiting opportunities as if they were some god-given right. Tanganga is in a headed collision with Soucek in the West Ham penalty box, and the Czech bleeds enough to have be taken off for a couple of minutes to have a stitch in time, but reappears to take the field again before Spurs can capitalise on the player difference.
Moyes is yet to manage a team that have beaten one of Mourinho’s, and when Kane fires wide when it might have been easier to score, the lifetime of that achievement is looking a little brittle. Spurs have 70% possession over the whole of the first half but hit the target 50% less than the Hammers.
Mourinho brings Bale and Doherty on at the start of the second half to make a difference. Seventy-five seconds in and the difference has been made. Profoundly. Hammers are now two up, courtesy of a neat finish from Lingard after Fornal’s intelligent flick. The Stockley Park Massive then spend longer VARing the award of the goal in second half minutes than West Ham did in scoring it.
On fifty-eight minutes, Harry Kane, averaging a goal a game v West Ham in the last eleven meetings, curls a free kick inches wide of Fabianski’s left hand post. Six minutes later Moura heads Bale’s brilliant near post corner past Fabianski. Spurs have got nearly half an hour to make their possession in the game count for something. Bale hits the bar on 79 minutes. A freak rebound off Son hits the post on 92 minutes, with Fabianski stranded. What can you do?
The mark of a great team-winning performance is when you can’t easily pick a man of the match. The fact that Heung-Min Son and Harry Minted Kane have had such little joy in this game suggests those tending to their nullification have the best claim on the award. I think I’m sharing it between Coufal, Dawson and Rice. Villa can’t beat Leicester and Newcastle don’t beat Manchester United, but – hey – there are only three teams above West Ham in this table, and we’re playing them all in the next six games. You can look up now. We’re fourth.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 23 Issa Diop, 15 Craig Dawson, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Souček, 18 Pablo Fornals, 11 Jesse Lingard, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 30 Michail Antonio
Substitutes: 16 Mark Noble, 9 Saïd Benrahma, 31 Ben Johnson
Scorers: 30 Michail Antonio, 11 Jesse Lingard
