West Ham United London (Home) 19.02.2023

Somebody in front of me shouted “What would we give for you (Declan Rice) in our side ?”  The question hung unanswered in the air, but in my mind I was thinking “Nothing”.  It is not obvious to me what the benefits of Declan Rice are.  He lacks pace, his passing was erratic and his positional play saw him caught out too many times to be a reliable midfielder.  A young player like Oliver Skipp showed him up and reduced him to wanting to fight every Spurs player he came across in his way after a free-kick had been given to his side !  Like Jack Grealish in the previous game here, his frustrations led to a lack of discipline and you don’t see that from many Spurs players.

The afternoon sun shone on the stadium as Paul Coyte interviewed Paul Allen and the teams ran out to warm up.  Obviously, the warm up wasn’t enough for the visiting players, three of whom – Antonio, Ogbonna and Benrahma ended up playing in gloves.  That gave an indication of how committed they were to their task. 

To be fair, the first half was a dreary affair, but Tottenham could have gone behind n the first minute if Bowen could have directed his shot on target.  A quick throw caught Spurs napping and Soucek pulled the ball to just outside the box and the striker hit a first time shot wide to the left of Forster’s goal.  Oliver Skipp was a little late with a challenge on Antonio, but it was his first foul and the referee deemed it to be worth a booking, which was interesting when Antonio committed the same tackle when he was already on a yellow card later in the match … and didn’t get the same treatment.  While West Ham had the better of the first ten minutes, winning a couple of free-kicks and corners, but the Spurs defenders coped with them well.

After Skipp’s shot was deflected over for a corner, although it was going well wide, the ball came in and dropped in the middle of the penalty area.  Harry Kane had a shot blocked and Richarlison, in for Son, tried to go to the left of Kehrer, who leant down and blocked the ball by moving his hand to the ball.  Initially, after VAR and the referee had failed to give it, it looked as though he was trying to support himself and it was “in close proximity”, but videos showed it was a deliberate movement and Spurs should have had a penalty.  As it was the next decent choice might have been the visitors’, as Bowen mis-hit a shot across the goal and Soucek just failed to reach it, although if he had he looked offside anyway.

Tottenham’s first effort on goal came after 35 minutes, when Hojbjerg took aim from a couple of yards outside the area, but his low shot to Fabianski’s right didn’t have enough power to test the keeper.  Cristian Romero was putting in some solid tackles and erred just on the right side of the laws to avoid a booking, but a great tackle on Soucek as he looked to pull the ball across from the dead-ball line left him needing treatment, but the centre-back was able to carry on.  Then Lenglet needed to be attended to after heading away a cross in the second phase of a West Ham free-kick, but again, was OK to continue.  It was all Spurs in the three minutes of added time, with Richi chasing a long ball into the box by Kane, which Fabianski looked favourite for.  The Brazilian beat the Pole to it and turned the ball goal-wards, with the goalie having to kick it out for a corner.  From that Romero got highest to the cross and powered a header a foot over the bar, rippling the top of the net as it went.

Paul Whitehouse was the half-time guest and was very entertaining, as you would expect, telling how he wore a Klinsmann 18 shirt as Lance in the Loadsamoney Harry Enfield sketch.  The Tottenham subs did not come out to warm up during the interval, but none were introduced as West Ham kicked off the second half and Spurs turned up the tempo of their play straight away.  Hunting down Hamster’s players on the ball, putting pressure on the keeper when kicking and generally moving to the ball first, the game swung our way very quickly. 

Despite the Irons winning a couple of early corners, it was Spurs who were creating the real chances.  Kulusevski had put a cross just too high for Harry in the middle, then the Swede nicked the ball off a sleeping Rice and found Kane again.  This time, he took the shot first time from the right side of the goal, but couldn’t get the outside of his boot too it and so he hit it too sweetly, with the ball going off halfway to the side-line for a goal-kick.  Shortly after, a fantastic pass from Pierre Hojbjerg split the visiting defence and Ben Davies popped up with a great run to cut inside between three players and slip a pass to Emerson Royal who was clear inside the penalty area with only Fabianski to beat, so surely he couldn’t miss.  And he didn’t.  Coolly side-footing the ball to the keeper’s left, leaving him standing as the ball went into the net.  His turn around in form has been remarkable with outstanding games against Preston and Man City, topped off by goals against City away and then today.  It was a team goal, as it started with Forster playing it out to Lenglet before he passed inside to Hojbjerg, who played the decisive pass.

With 56 minutes gone, there was still a long time to full-time and Fraser Forster, who had been given nothing to do, was on his toes as Bowen capitalised on a flick-on and beat Romero for pace, to fire a low shot from his left of the goal.  The Spurs keeper got down to it and Romero smuggled the loose ball away for a corner.  That came to nothing, but it was Spurs who were soon on the attack again, as Kulusevski, who had a quiet first half, thundered a shot after coming inside from the right and Fabianski had to beat it out with both his fists.

Antonio was rightly booked for a horror tackle on Harry Kane, as it seemed the only route to getting anything out of the game was through the Spurs players.  They did have half a chance when a corner fell at the far post, but Spurs made sure the ball was got rid of very quickly.  Heung-Min Son came on for Richarlison, who had another shot on target in the second half, but could only pick out the keeper with a low effort that he didn’t really get hold of.  West Ham brought on Ings for Antonio, who had just taken another Spurs player out with the referee bottling the decision to wave a second yellow, and Benrahma for someone called Downes, who I hadn’t realised was playing.  It was an inspired substitution by Moyes, because a goal came straight away.  Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t for his side.  Romero hoisted a high ball forward under pressure and Ogbonna was so pre-occupied with wrestling Kane, he forgot about the ball and ended up heading it on for Harry who took possession and passed between two claret shirts into Sonny’s run and he did just what you expect when he is one on one with the keeper.  Hitting it slightly into the ground to Fabianski’s left, it was always going to be a goal.  It was a relief to get a second, as you never know how the game might pan out with a 1-0 lead, but Sonny was clinical and had added an energy to the side after coming on as a sub.

A soft foul was given against Lenglet right on the edge of the box which looked dangerous, but Benrahma fired it over the bar.  Davies was put into the box on the left by Skipp’s pass even though the crowd were urging the midfielder to shoot, but Ben couldn’t wrap his foot around the ball and it ended up hitting the side-netting.  Spurs replaced Lenglet with Perisic and West Ham made the most of the re-arrangement on our left side, with Bowen beating two men tight to the dead-ball line to pass back to Benrahma, but it was a really poor effort that went well wide of the goal, when he should have got it on target at the very least.

A few substitutions disrupted the flow of the game, with Bowen getting in on our left again, but this time getting a boot on top of his foot and a free-kick.  In an unforgiving way, his team-mates all walked away from him, leaving him to take the dead-ball kick despite hobbling around in pain.  Rice eventually took it and it was cleared, but Perisic brought down Coufal, getting a booking and causing Rise to boil over.  He was told to simmer down, but appeared to want to take it up with the whole of the Spurs defence.  Surprisingly, this aggressive attitude was allowed to escape the referee’s notebook.  The free-kick was played in, cleared and went out for a Spurs throw, which there wasn’t time to take and a 2-0 win was ours and a place in the relegation zone was West Han’s.

It was a timid performance in what was a relegation battle for the Irons, let alone a London derby.  One shot on target was the sum total of what they could muster and their all-round play was lacking sharpness and any real direction.  They strung together very few passing moves and Fraser Forster had a quiet afternoon, while the Spurs defence coped comfortably with most that was thrown at them.  On the other hand, Fabianski had to make a number of saves, the West Ham defence were strung out and didn’t have a real shape, while the midfield was pretty anonymous and the forwards even more so.  Moyes must have some sort of plan to drag them out of the position they are in, but for the life of me, I couldn’t see what it was.

Emerson Royal had another fine match, with Ben Davies shining in an unusual wing-back position, but the Spurs game was based around Skipp and Hojbjerg in the middle of midfield, both winning the ball and playing it simply and effectively.  The one who wanted Rice in our midfield must have been unable to see what was in front of them, because Skipp is a player who will mature and won’t cost the £100 million (right) that West Ham want for Rice.  If I was asked, i know which I would choose.

Harry had a tifo welcome as the teams came out of the tunnel, having already received a boot trophy for becoming the club’s top goal-scorer.  It was recognition of a player who has worked so hard to become a natural goal-scorer and all-round legend at the club.  It was well-deserved and something that was due a very mice man as well.  There are no airs and graces about him, just pure talent.

Sterling Performance

• The South Stand displayed a tifo for Harry Kane’s club goal-scoring record and he was presented with a trophy to mark the event before kick-off.
• Harry’s daughters were among the match mascots for the day.
• Eric Dier made his 350th appearance in all competitions for Tottenham.
• Players wore black armbands in memory of those who died in the Turkish earthquake.
• The players took the knee before kick-off.
• This was West Ham’s 1,500th League defeat.