Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 West Ham United: Pressure brings party

Tottenham Hotspur often have problems with West Ham United, and when the away team scored the first goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Spurs fans could be forgiven for feeling a familiar sense of fear; But that fear soon gave way to joy as Spurs were able to put West Ham in their place in a dominant second 45 minutes.

Both teams were able to name arguably their strongest XIs, with the returns of Son Heung-min and Richarlison giving Spurs a huge boost as Son returned straight into the starting lineup. Yves Bissouma also returned to the starting line-up in place of Rodrigo Bentancur and although there were fears that Lucas Bergvall and Brennan Johnson would miss international duty, both secured a place in the squad.

Spurs looked good from the start and had a few half-chances: an excellent pass from Pedro Porro into West Ham's 18-yard box almost gave Dominic Solanke a chance on goal, Brennan Johnson fired a shot past the post and… a curler from Son went just wide; But the best early chance fell to West Ham when Jarrod Bowen played a pass across the penalty area to Mohammed Kudus, whose shot was well struck but went too close to Guglielmo Vicario. However, it was almost a carbon copy of that moment when West Ham took the lead. Bowen shrugged off extremely poor defending from Destiny Udogie and played the ball across goal to an unmarked Kudus who fired it into the goal.

It looked like it might be a frustrating afternoon for Spurs as West Ham went deep and the chances simply weren't taken. Brennan Johnson had a header chance right in front of goal when he went over his shoulder and missed when it seemed easier to score, and Porro fired a shot from distance that Alphonse Areola did well to parry after taking a nasty deflection . However, the Hammers goalkeeper did not shower himself with glory as Spurs soon equalized. A break from deep in Tottenham territory found Dejan Kulusevski at the feet, the Swede cut inside on the left and fired a shot towards the near post. Areola should have done better by firing the shot with a glove, but instead it rained off his fingertips onto both posts before ending up in the back of the net.

From then on, Spurs began to tweak things, and at one point some great Spurs play, including a backheel goal from Dejan Kulusevski, could have resulted in one of the best goals of the season. However, Pedro Porro couldn't quite get his volley on target and both teams went into the break with one goal each.

Ange Postecoglou made an interesting half-time substitution. At first glance it seemed defensive, an odd choice with the score tied, as James Maddison made way for Pape Matar Sarr. However, the loss of one of their creative personalities didn't seem to hamper Spurs as it didn't take long for the Lilywhites to take the lead. Son played a neat pass to Destiny Udogie, who had made an underlapping run into the West Ham penalty area. Udogie controlled the pass coolly, turned around and passed the ball to an oncoming Yves Bissouma, who fired his shot into the goal for the first time.

Tottenham immediately went back to attack. Kulusevski attacked the penalty area from several meters away before playing in Son, who had cleverly run behind the Swede. Son's left-footed shot was somewhat weak, but Areola couldn't contain it and shot the ball straight into the path of Jean-Clair Todibo, who moved up in defense. It bounced off the centre-back, again off Areola, and then into the goal, doubling Spurs' lead within minutes.

It only took a few minutes for Spurs to score again as the Lilywhites began to put West Ham in their place. A fantastic rake pass from the son found deep in open pasture. With little support around him, the South Korean decided to take on his man and showed quick feet to keep Todibo off balance. He created enough space for a shot and fired it low past Areola, who once again should have done better. The score had instantly increased from 1:1 to 4:1.

West Ham were becoming more and more frustrated and it soon boiled over when Kudus kicked Micky van de Ven on the ground. The Dutchman responded by shoving the West Ham winger, who immediately swung and hit the centre-back in the face before doing the same to Pape Matar Sarr as a shoving fight broke out between both teams. The referee bizarrely awarded both van de Ven and Kudus yellow cards before VAR intervention resulted in a red card for the Ghanaian.

The result could have been even more one-sided. Spurs almost scored a fifth when Son parried a deflected pass that rattled the right post, and Timo Werner and Brennan Johnson both had good chances to extend the lead. However, despite being outnumbered by 10 men, West Ham managed to save themselves from further embarrassment and the game ended 4-1.

Reactions

• I liked this game better than the one in Brighton. Can we please have more of this and less like Brighton?
• Did Ange Postecoglou hear the complaints about the late substitutions against Brighton? Because the fact that James Maddison was taken off the park at half-time was NOT what I had on my bingo sheet.
• Aside from the personnel change, I don't know exactly what was going on tactically – it just felt like Spurs were starting to make the most of the chances they were creating – but Sarr was definitely in a slightly deeper position than Maddison, and that gave the left side of the defense a little more support.
• Speaking of which… Destiny Udogie had a tough match today, and this has been a pretty consistent problem for most of the season. It seemed like he had shaken off the rust with a dominant performance against Manchester United, but when should we worry that these performances aren't just an aberration, especially after a serious injury? At least he made up for it with an assist!
• Person. I don't know WHAT happened to Dejan Kulusevski this season (perhaps a writer on this site wrote an article denigrating him), but he has gotten stronger and stronger this season and was unplayable at times today. I wasn't a fan of his play in midfield after what I saw last season, but what he offers in that role now is incredible.
• There could have been 3-4 red cards in this turmoil caused by Kudus. Incredibly, the referee was content to see yellow both ways as he clearly deliberately kicked Van de Ven to the ground before he went wild and hit several Spurs players in the face. That's what VAR is for, I guess?
• Did the fact that Ryan Mason turned heads at Anderlecht have an impact on Spurs' attacking situations? Who is to say that? But Maddison's delivery was consistently poor.
• Next it's back to Europe to take on AZ Alkmaar and see a reunion with Troy Parrott. COYS!