West Ham United London (Away) 21.02.2021

Worn with Navy Blue socks

Goals early in each half left Spurs chasing the game at West Ham United London and although they got one back, the pressure they built on the home goal could not bring an equaliser.

An early goal for west Ham came in the fifth minute, when a right-wing cross was played into the six-yard box and Antonio got to it before Tanganga and while Lloris blocked the first effort, the ball ran free for the forward to put it into an empty net. Soucek had body checked Reguilon in the build-up, but nothing was given by VAR and Spurs found themselves on the wrong end of a 1-0 score-line.

Tottenham were sitting deep and not pressing West Ham high up the pitch. It was a dangerous game to play, as the ball over the top of the back four could allow the Irons in behind. When Ndombele was robbed in the centre circle, suddenly a break was on for the home team and Antonio played the ball to Lingard on his left, but his weak shot or pass for Antonio was wide of the goal and his team-mate.

Our first shot came in the 13th minute and it was brought about when Lamela ran 50 yards with the ball, beating five players as he took the ball up the pitch, before laying it off to Harry Kane on his right. From 20 yards out, Harry fired his shot at goal, but it swerved away from the right hand post and wide.

Bowen got in behind the defence, but was tackled in the box, with the play continuing even though he had looked well offside. Moura took on the West Ham defence, winning a corner and from it, Fabianski got under it and when Tanganga headed it back into the goalmouth form the far post, Sanchez went for it with Soucek and clashed heads. The ball dropped loose and Kane shot at goal from around the penalty spot, but it was blocked before play was stopped with the West Ham midfielder having blood pouring from a head wound. Off for stitches, he left his side with ten men and Spurs looked wide to try and capitalise, with Kane’s header on Reguilon’s cross looping high for the West Ham keeper to take unchallenged high by the post.

It looked as though we needed to get Ndombele further up the field, as he was prompting play from the defensive midfield position but might have hurt the home side if he was more advanced. Kane’s cross-field ball from the right found Son at the far post and a step-over gave him space for a low cross that Moura failed to make contact with. Soucek came back after five minutes during which Spurs had failed to make the extra man count.

A free-kick on the left of the penalty box for Bowen’s handball when trying to block Regi’s cross was played into the near post. It was blocked away and Son laid it off to Moura, who blazed a shot well wide. Apart from Jose being spoken to by the referee, who had given a questionable free-kick against  Reguilon, the match was peppered with stoppages, preventing any flow. One of them was for a foul by Erik Lamela on Diop, which was deemed a yellow card by the referee.

Having been penned in their own half for a while, West Ham won a corner and Cresswell took it, finding Dawson’s head and Lloris had to push it over the bar with both hands from the middle of his goal. The following corner found Diop rising to win the header, but he could only direct it across the penalty box behind him. Reguilon made no better contact with a shot when the ball was rolled to him by Son as Spurs attacked, squirting it a few yards as he totally missed his kick. When Spurs played through the middle, they hit a wall of claret shirts as they got to 25 yards out. After his encounter with  Mourinho, the referee seemed sympathetic to the home team and when Hojbjerg slipped as he pulled out of tackling Lingard, he still decided it was a yellow card, as he did when Reguilon gently pushed Bowen soon after. Needless bookings by the official was putting pressure on our players, who had to be wary of another challenge.

Three minutes before the break Son played a square ball across the face of the box and Lamela ran onto it, striking it first time. It forced Fabianski to a save, which he held at the second attempt. Hojbjerg and Ndombele exchanged passes and the Dane slid the ball right to Kane, who drilled a low shot through Cresswell’s legs and the keeper had to dive right to keep the cross-shot out as it looked to be heading into the corner.

At half-time, West Ham had still been pressing Spurs high up, making it difficult to play out from the back and the informed view is that this is what they had been doing well lately. That and getting two banks of four back behind the ball as soon as it was lost. To change things up Bale and Doherty came on for Lamela and Tanganga.

Two minutes after the restart, a break of the ball for West Ham right at the start of the half saw the ball run for Lingard as he went forward and he drove it left-footed across Lloris for a second goal. VAR looked at it for some time but gave it at the end of their review. It wasn’t the start to the half that Spurs wanted and gave us a lot to do in the remaining 42 minutes.

Losing the ball cheaply was putting pressure on the Spurs defence, as players were dwelling on the ball and getting it taken off them, instead of playing the sharp incisive passing that had been a trademark of the early season play. Bale almost found Kane at the far post with a cross, but a defender got there first to concede a corner, which Son played straight into the keeper’s hands.

Kane drove a free-kick from 20 yards out on the left just wide of the opposite post and then put in a low right wing cross that Fabianski just about grabbed and Bale shot from 20 yards straight at the goalie. 63 36 Rice conceded a corner and from the Tottenham right, Bale played it into the near post and Lucas Moura jumped highest to head it in off the post to narrow the score-line. The pressure had been building and eventually paid off in an unusual manner.

Benrahma replaced Bowen straight after the goal and it must have been hoped that Moyes’ move would stop the movement towards the West Ham goal. Son, played in by Bale on the left side of the box, set up Moura, but his effort was well over the bar. Another attack saw Moura give Harry the chance of a shot that went a couple of feet wide of the keeper’s right hand post. Spurs got even closer when Kane went down the right and Rice cleared from in front of his own goal, but straight back out to Harry. He pulled the ball back just outside the box to Gareth Bale, who struck the bar with his effort and it then skimmed over the top.

A ball into the box from Bale saw Coufal and Fabianski go for the ball before Son got there and there was a lengthy delay while they received treatment. Son jinked past Cresswell and put a delicious ball into the goalmouth, which Diop did very well to get out for a corner. Nothing came of that and nothing came from two poor crosses Bale and Doherty put into the area.

In the first of five added minutes Lingard brought down Dele and conceded a free-kick with a foul similar to Reguilon receiving a booking for. It didn’t result in a chance directly, but it was cleared against Son and the ball looped over Fabianski and bounced away off the post, just behind Davinson Sanchez. A hoof up the field nearly led to a goal for the home team, with Lloris clearing weakly, but he got a second chance to get the ball to a white shirt.  West Ham ate up the remaining time by laying on the floor after a foul and then booting the ball up to the Spurs goal and the final whistle went on their cup final, which for a change, they had won.

The key to the game was the soft goals Tottenham conceded and it doesn’t matter of you are Mourinho or David Moyes, if your team give the opposition a head start, it makes it that much more difficult to get anything out of the game. Spurs huffed and puffed and hit the woodwork twice, but there was a lack of quality in the crossing and finishing today that cost us again. While everyone says that Mourinho has based his success son defence, it depends who is in that defence and whether individual mistakes cost goals.

Bale and Dele both came on and Gareth played very well, while Dele put a lot of energy into the eighteen minutes he had on the field. Hojbjerg and Ndombele looked good in the defensive midfield pairing, but Tanguy’s talents are lessened by playing him there. Lamela ran around a lot, but his final pass or shot are too often not hurting the opposition and Moura ran all day, deserved his goal and probably a bit more. Son looked off the pace a little, perhaps affected by transfer talk, with Kane looking a little jaded despite his midweek rest when opting out of the trip to Hungary. Lloris might have done better with the first and that showed the hesitancy in the defence that is costing us goals.  Reguilon did OK but is a little too eager to foul sometimes and Japhet wasn’t too bad, although his substitution by Doherty should have seen the former Wolves man putting better balls into the West Ham box.

The balance of play probably ended up in our favour, but today the balance of goals wasn’t.

Ted Maul

Jose Mourinho took charge of Tottenham for the 50th time.

This was the 50th meeting between Spurs and West Ham United London in the Premier League.