Tottenham boss Postecoglou lauds ´outstanding´ second-half display

Ange Postecoglou hailed an “outstanding” second-half display from Tottenham in their win over West Ham.

In stark contrast to the capitulation at Brighton before the international break, Spurs took the game away from the Hammers after the interval on Saturday.

Goals from Yves Bissouma and Son Heung-min, combined with Alphonse Areola’s own goal, saw Spurs to a 4-1 win in the early kick-off, with Dejan Kulusevski having cancelled out Mohammed Kudus’ opener in the first half.

Kudus became the sixth different West Ham player to both score and get sent off in the same Premier League game when he was sent off for violent conduct late on as Spurs capitalised on a dominant second-half display in which they had 10 shots and got five on target.

“We had to fight hard in the first half,” Postecoglou told BBC Sport.

“Going a goal down wasn’t ideal but we clawed our way back into it, and it is not easy. West Ham are a big physical side and they have got some speed as well.

“Second half we were outstanding. We upped the tempo and played some quality football, defended when we needed to and got our finishing right.

“I think we had some chances where we could have scored more but if we keep creating the goals will come. We want to be that sort of side that creates lots of chances.

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“It was not about changing things. We knew there had been a bit of an arm wrestle and we always back ourselves to keep going at the intensity we always do and upping it and taking the game to West Ham. We knew that putting them under pressure here at home, we would eventually get there.

“It was a bad 45 minutes not a bad 90 minutes [v Brighton] so we were not that far away. In that game we stopped the things we had to do in the second half but today it was a 95-minute performance.”

James Maddison set up Kulusevski’s equaliser, though was taken off at half-time.

In the process, Maddison became just the second Tottenham player on record (since 2003-04) to create at least five chances in a Premier League game while playing 45 minutes or fewer, after Darren Anderton v Fulham in August 2003 (five chances created in 32 minutes).

On the substitution, Postecoglou said: “We needed more running power in midfield and Pape [Sarr] has lots of that, bags of energy and running.

“He really helped us to get control of the midfield and that gave us a good platform to go forward. Our general play improved from there and we looked dangerous going forward.”