West Ham United London (away) 24.10.2021

The win over Newcastle United had been a welcome one for Spurs, but now they faced a different challenge in a side who were over-performing and were up for the match.  Seven minutes into the game, Bowen put in a long right-wing cross for Fornals to scissor kick a volley that Lloris had to push away at the foot of his right-hand post, then three minutes on, Hojbjerg tried an effort from 25 yards, but straight at keeper. Then Ndombele went into box and trod on ball, but Zouma took him out anyway, but VAR looked at it and said he got the ball.  Not really sure that I saw that but then I was suffering with the lergy.  Soucek had a presentable chance in the 13th minute, when Antonio dinked up a left wing cross towards the penalty spot and Soucek blasted his volley over Hugo’s goal and after another five minutes, Fornals shot well wide when Dier half-cleared Antonio’s cross.  Spurs weren’t holding onto the ball and West Ham were able to control play.

At last, Spurs managed to create something in the 19th minute, when Son wriggled in box with two men around him, poking it to Lucas Moura, who fired over on the turn, when Son wanted it touched back with him facing the goal and with twenty-five minutes gone, some nice passing between Ndombele and Son saw our striker onto the ball in the box, but his low shot lacked enough power to trouble Fabianski.  Soucek went into the book for a high challenge on Hojbjerg much to his surprise in the 20th minute and sixteen minutes later, Ogbonna followed him for a clumsy effort to win the ball from Ndombele. 

West Ham’s chances continued to be created and in the 34th minute Fornals left wing cross into the box was won by Soucek, but he headed wide.  Most times that Spurs went forward, they had to turn back as there were so many home players behind the ball, although there was a glimmer of a chance when a free-kick dropped to Tanguy on edge of box. He tried to get over it as the ball bounced up, but the shot was deflected over for a corner.  Five minutes before the break, a Reguilon cross was headed at goal by Ndombele, but it was easy for the keeper to grasp and then the ball was kicked to the other end, where Antonio shrugged off Romero, but he tried to go himself as he came in from right, ending with a left foot shot
that went wide.

The ball won in midfield by Spurs and worked left. Reguilon lifted a cross to the far post and Fabianski dived up to push Harry Kane’s header over the bar .  If it had been headed down, it may have been harder work for the keeper.  Tottenham’s problems going forward were caused mostly by the lack of movement off the ball and Lucas was the only player looking to take it on the half turn, meaning that others took an extra touch that ate up time and slowed any attack.

The second half was two minutes old when Skipp’s good pass behind the defence sent Ndombele through, but his low first-time cross was cut
out by Fabianski.  Both sides were giving the ball away making the game disjointed, but Spurs then moved the ball well and Lucas passed to Tanguy, who fed Regi, whose cross was just too pacy for Skipp to reach.  The next Tottenham move was started by Skipp, who broke up a West Ham move and broke forward, got the bounce of the ball and tried a sort of half chip half cross, but it flew softly into the keeper’s arms.

Eleven minutes into the half and Romero breaks up move on edge of Spurs box, Strides forward, plays it right to Kane, whose under-hit cross was taken by Fabianski well before it got to Son.  Just before the hour Romero won the ball from Fornals on our right side and then urged him to get up, which brought West Ham subs onto the field and then a lot of people got involved.  It is something that you see often enough, players pulling players up when they feel they are faking it, but it is only usually ours who get booked for it.  The problem was the incident stirred up the volatile Irons fans and suddenly they remembered that they were in a match.

In the 69th minute, Antonio got onto a long ball as it bounced out of the sun, but Hugo came out and took the ball and the player with it.  It was an uncharacteristic move from the Spurs captain, but one I would like to see more often.  When the throw-in was taken, the ball was played into the box and Sergio Reguilon did well to take it off a pink and blue shirt, but he then lost it to Fornals.  He struck a shot from the edge of the area and Dier got a block on it, coming off his leg, going under him and into the ground before sailing over the bar.  The corner was taken on the right and was played into the near post with pace, where Kane lost Antonio and he shinned it into the bottom right-hand corner of Lloris’ net to give the home team the lead.  

Spurs had not looked likely to score, so, it was going to be a tough twenty minutes.  Skipp tried to let the ball go off, but Antonio kept it in and Benrama was denied by Lloris before Emerson made a good tackle on Bowen to stop him having a shot.  Spurs made an effort with crosses into the box, but they were not generally aimed at anyone in particular.  Antonio set up Benrahma, who drew a save from Hugo and then Emerson produced another good tackle to stop Fornals making anything of the loose ball, but that was about the last threat on the Spurs goal as West Ham seemed happy to defend what they had.  But from that Spurs did break forward, but Regi’s cross was blocked for a corner that was cleared and Bowen took it off Son, who chased him back to the Spurs penalty area before winning the ball back.

West Ham were happy to kill the game by winning free-kicks and the game fizzled out.  

Tottenham were a pale shadow of the side who did well last week.  Yes, up against a better side, but there is a need to impose our style on the opposition and not wait for them to play poorly.  We have the players to do it, but it looked today that the belief wasn’t there.  Antonio’s goal was like the one he scored in Mourinho’s first game in charge that we won 3-2 here, so we hadn’t remembered the simple lesson from that.

Our problems were manyfold.  We gave ball away far too easily.  We hit hopeful passes without reaching the man they were intended for. Too many 1-2s around box were crowded out.  We weren’t aggressive enough.  There was little linked up play and the movement off the ball was really poor, giving the person in possession no option to pass to.  All fairly basic stuff and things that need correcting quickly, otherwise there will be a whole new set of issues Daniel Levy will need to face.

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