West Ham United London (Away) 31.08.2022

Having looked reasonably comfortable and forced an own goal to take the lead, one moment of lack of concentration cost Tottenham the win, but a point was more than we took away from the Taxpayer’s Stadium last season. 

Missing Rodrigo Bentancur, Yves Bissouma stepped into his place and West Ham had Lucas Pacqueta on the bench. The kick-off was delayed until the official’s communication system was working properly and looking around there seemed to be a large number of empty seats in the home sections.

It was a slow start to the game, although Son’s burst into the box ended up as a free-kick against him, when Kehrer looked to be getting an arm across him before he got there. Royal hit a shot straight at the keeper from outside the box. Five minutes in and Bowen was released, but with Davies in close attendance, he dragged his shot wide across the goal and then Fornals had a shot from the right, which Lloris chose to punch away. When the corner came in Zouma tied to clatter Hugo, but came off worse, needing treatment before he could continue.

In the 11th minute, Perisic performed his step-over to dig out a cross to the back post, where Kanes’s header appeared to hit Cresswell’s out-stretched arm and the referee blew for a penalty straight away.  Miles away in VAR land Stuart Attwell took so long to review it, that boos were ringing out all around the ground. Even then he bottled it and the ref had to go to the pitch-side monitor, where he decided it hit the player’s head before coming off onto his hand, so it wasn’t a penalty. Not only that but West Ham got the ball to restart play after a five-minute delay. This game could have gone on all night at this rate.

Lloris had to beat away a shot from Rice as the crowd started to get excited, but from the short corner, Bowen floated the ball out of play beyond the far post. The stoppage had affected Spurs, who were in control of the ball in those first ten minutes, but when Bowen got accidentally caught by Bissmoua before the ball was played forward, the Spurs midfielder then threw the ball down and got booked for it. Mikael Antonio came inside of Dier to hit a shot that cannoned away off the left-hand post of Lloris’ goal. Sanchez picked up a booking for fouling Fornals in the build-up.

Spurs worked the ball forward to Kulusevski and his lay-off saw Hojbjerg side-foot an effort at goal, but it was straight at Fabianski and might have been disallowed if it had beat him, as Son was in the goalkeeper’s line of sight. Kane found a good straight pass through to Kulusevski, but he chose to try to square it instead of shooting and there wasn’t a white shirt on the end of it.

Spurs were playing the ball about to no particular effect, but breaking up a West Ham move outside the Tottenham box, Kane broke, fed Dejan, who waited until Harry had over-lapped him on the right and his low ball into the goalmouth was aimed at Son, but Kehrer beat him to it to slid the ball over his own goal-line. It was a fantastic break from Spurs and with players committed up-field, the Irons were out-numbered and then out-thought. Soufall was trying to pull Son back anyway and with Kane’s ball taking the keeper out of the equation, Kehrer had nowhere to go other than to stop it reaching Sonny and knock the ball in.

Benrahma took a shot from 20 yards out, but a half-block on the ball made it a comfortable save for Hugo, with the ball coming straight to him. Five minutes before the break, it looked as though Son might be in when Harry Kane hooked a ball forward from halfway, but the striker’s header had too much strength on it and it ran through to Fabianski. A softer touch or a ball that wasn’t bouncing so high might have had him in on the keeper.

Having passed 35 minutes of the match, Davinson’s clean sheet moved past 10 hours and it was surprising when the stoppage clock came up with four extra minutes, as the VAR review, treatment for Zouma and the goal must have added up to more than that. It was lucky that they didn’t add time on for when the West Ham lumped the ball straight up into the air !

When the game re-started, Hojbjerg emerged to take his place in midfield, over-coming the kick he took just before the end of the first half, but he didn’t last more than two minutes, as he couldn’t run and that left him struggling. Dejan certainly wasn’t hampered, as he took the ball off a West Ham player, out-paced Creswell and pulled a low ball back for Son, but his shot was deflected wide. Sanchez played a ball forward for Kane to muscle in front of Zouma, but couldn’t find Kulusevski with a reverse pass, although the Irons defender was all over him.

Hojbjerg then has a problem with his boot, signalling that the sole had come away from the upper, which Moyes moaned about while Pierre-Emile had to leave the pitch to be provided with a new boot to put on.  West Ham moved down their right and the ball was flipped inside from Antonio to Soucek who took a touch and then rifled it past Lloris at his near post from the right of the goal. It all came from a needless throw-in we conceded and were not alert to when it was taken.

Perisic and Davies played a nice one-two on our left and Ben’s ban got through to the six-yard box where Cresswell hoofed it into the air and just over his own bar. West Ham looked less interested in winning the ball, being happy to drop all eleven men back behind the ball. The allowing of more physical contact obviously doesn’t extend to when a player is in his own box, as Kane shrugged off Kehrer to win a corner, only for a free kick to be given the home side’s way. At the other end, when Hugo tried to play the ball out, Bowen got a foot to it, then as play continued, Soucek played it to the near post from their right side and Bowen got to it, but sliced it across goal from a yard out.

New signing Lucas Pacqueta came on and the home fans were very excited every time he touched the ball. At last Sonny got the ball clear of the West Ham defence, but he had to come inside to get his shot away and it hit a defender on the way to win a corner and from it, a defensive header at the near post put the ball into the air.  Sanchez tried an overhead kick, but it went wide, with Soucek claiming that he had taken a kick in the head.  Sofal broke up the right wing, with Bowen getting a touch at the near post taking it through to Fornals in the middle and he blazed it way over the bar. Richarlison’s first involvement after replacing Kulusevski was to play a ball beyond the defenders for Kane, but Harry took a touch and the ball was blocked for a corner. I’m not sure what the set-piece coach has been doing with the players this week, but each corner was poor tonight.  Combined with Hugo’s poor passing out from the back, it meant that too many times we didn’t make the pressure pay when up the West Ham end and put pressure on ourselves in our defensive third.

Perisic put a great ball across goal and this time the West ham defender Ogbonna let it go, but Royal recycled it and when Zouma headed it out, Kane volleyed it into the ground with Fabianski behind it.  As the game entered the last five minutes of normal time, West Ham were lobbing high balls into the Tottenham box.

Davies picked up Tottenham’s third yellow card of the night for a foul on Bowen, but Fornals had committed a few and there were worse fouls by home players, which the referee deemed not worthy of the effort of going to his pocket. Another Soufal cross was pulled back and with Pacqueta and Emerson both leaving it for each other, the ball ran through to the other side of the area.

Tottenham tailed off in the second half and lacked the forward cohesion to trouble the home defence, but Pacqueta’s late up-ending of Royal saw him booked and then the West ham sub Emerson for getting involved with Richarlison saw yellow. Then Perisic got booked for a nothing foul on Antonio, as the game  disintegrated into niggles caused by the referee.

A long-throw was cleared by Spurs to the far post and when Richarlison’s clearance was blocked, the ball spun back in the air towards the Tottenham goal. Bowen was there again, with a volley to the left of the goal, but it went across the face of the goal with nobody in a claret shirt able to apply the finishing touch.

The game was an odd one. The tempo was pretty slow for most of the game, as West Ham were happy for Spurs to have the ball, only looking dangerous themselves from set-pieces or the odd break. Spurs had done well in the first half, creating more, but not much in the way of clear-cut chances. A draw was probably a fair result in the end, with Tottenham’s goal living a bit of a charmed life, but a second goal could have finished the game off, as West Ham were making chances but rarely looked like they were able to make them count.

Paul Maybury