London: Tottenham Hotspurs’ 2-0 win at home in the London derby against West Ham took them back into the top four of the Premier League, a sought-after position for Champions League qualification.
With Tottenham’s manager, Antonio Conte recovering after an operation, the assistant coach, Cristian Stellini, who has had three wins from three games in-charge said: “I’m very glad to see this type of performance. It was an important game, important moment. With a win we could reach again fourth place. It is important now to be consistent.”
After a lacklustre 45 minutes, Tottenham were a different proposition in the second half, both with keeping possession and moving the ball around with accuracy and urgency. They had a strong appeal rejected for a penalty midway through the first half when Thilo Kehrer handled the ball as he fell on a pass which was heading towards striker Harry Kane.
The visitors, however, could have had an early lead when, in the first minute Jarrod Bowen took a powerful shot from the penalty box but it went inches wide. There were very few shots on target in the first half but the game sprang into life after the break.
Spurs got the breakthrough in the 56th minute. Ben Davies sent a long pass to the unmarked Emerson Royal whose right-footed shot from half-way inside the 18-yard box beat the diving Lukasz Fabianski.
Earlier, Richarlson should have done better when his shot from the edge of the box lacked power and went straight to the Hammers goalkeeper. Kane too missed a fine chance when he shot wide from an angle after receiving a pass from Dejan Kulusevski who had done well to win the ball away from Declan Rice.
Richarlson was replaced in the 68th minute by Heung-Min Son with the Hammers also later bringing on substitutes Danny Ings and Said Benrahma but it did not help. For Spurs the change had worked well as the South Korean made an impact straightaway doubling the lead within four minutes of arrival.
It was the combination of Kane and Son that was so effective with Kane putting through a well-measured pass to the advancing Son who, with a burst of pace, drove a firm low shot giving no chance to Fabianski. The goal extended the record of Kane and Son as pair, to have combined for most Premier League goals to 45.
West Ham manager, David Moyes said: “It’s been a problem all season, we haven’t been able to create. The players have been challenged now, let’s see who’s up for the fight. I’ll be looking to see the colour of the player’s eyes in the next week. I can imagine what the colour of mine will be.”
Hammers captain, Rice seemed critical of their strategy: “When you play with five at the back and the three, like we set up today, maybe our strikers felt a bit isolated when we got the ball up to them – they didn’t really have enough around them, not enough support.”
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