West Ham United welcomed Tottenham Hotspur to the London Stadium for the opening game of the 13th round of the Premier League season. It was a meeting of two teams which had been getting some underwhelming results early in their respective campaigns, and a meeting of two managers which were once fierce rivals employed by Manchester City and Chelsea – both Premier League winners.
But while the pressure was slowly mounting on Manuel Pellegrini at West Ham, Jose Mourinho had only just taken over from Mauricio Pochettino at Spurs and was in charge for only a few days ahead of the trip across London.
Team News
Pellegrini was without the creativity of Manuel Lanzini, as well as the presence of his first-choice goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski between the posts. However, midfielders Mark Noble, Jack Wilshere and Michail Antonio all recovered from their injuries, but only Noble started, with Antonio on the bench and Wilshere not in the squad.
Roberto Jimenez was in goal. Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna were in the heart of defence, with Aaron Cresswell on the left and Ryan Fredericks on the right. Declan Rice anchored the midfield, with captain Noble and Robert Snodgrass covering the middle of the park with him. Striker Sebastian Haller was flanked by Andriy Yarmolenko and Felipe Anderson.
Mourinho was unable to count on defender Jan Vertonghen and midfielder Tanguy Ndombele, who went through late tests but obviously weren’t deemed ready. Goalkeepers Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm were both out. It meant that 20-year-old Brandon Austin was on the bench, with Paulo Gazzaniga in the starting XI.
So Gazzaniga stood between the posts. Davinson Sanchez and Toby Alderweireld paired up at the back, flanked by Serge Aurier and Ben Davies. Harry Winks joined Eric Dier in a double-pivot in midfield, with Delle Ali further up. Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura played on the wings, with Harry Kane leading the line. Christian Eriksen was left on the bench.
The First Half
Spurs took the initiative early on and managed to put the ball in the net after only three minutes, but Kane was rightly ruled offside.
The pressure from the visitors caused some discomfort among the West Ham defenders and there were a few panicky reactions, but they survived – mostly due to Kane’s tendency not to stay in line with the defenders. The Hammers tried to respond with long passes forward looking for Haller to hold it up, or sending it wide for Anderson and Yarmolenko to chase. For a while it seemed it wouldn’t work, but in the eight minute they worked a nice position for Fredericks to cross from the right flank. The cross found Haller, but the striker’s deflected header gave Gazzaniga no problems.
Spurs continued their offensive and in the 12th minute a good cross almost found Sanchez running at the far post as Roberto failed to catch it, but the linesman’s flag was up. The home team tried to respond with another quick move down the right, but Fredericks messed it up this time.
Mourinho’s men tried a different approach. They held possession for longer spells, not rushing forward and taking their time before moving to strike, but it proved not very effective with Winks almost getting caught in his own half more than once and the Hammers well positioned in defence.
In the 20th minute, Son apparently got tired of it all and whacked one from long range, forcing Roberto to stay on his toes, and then another which got deflected into the pass of Moura who made a mess of his header.
Five minutes later, Anderson pulled a lightning-quick counterattack down the left and broke into the box, but his pull-back for Haller went behind the striker’s back and the defence reacted. The Spurs’ initiative faltered slightly after that and the Hammers were spending more time in their half, but they couldn’t create a proper chance with Alderweireld organizing his teammates well at the back.
But after the half-hour mark, Spurs went forward once again. They threatened from a couple of corners and they worked up a nice chance for Son with the Korean breaking into the box, but the home team’s defence reacted very well. Then Alli dispossessed Diop at the back and combined well with Son, and eventually Kane had a great chance only to be stopped at the last second by Rice. But less than a minute later, Spurs finally broke the deadlock.
Alli this time sent Son running into the box, Son cheated Diop and whacked it past Roberto from a tight angle with his left foot.
0-1.
It was interesting to see how Spurs changed formation when off the ball. Kane would drop deeper, practically into the midfield line, while Son and Moura came closer to one another and looked to make use of their pace if their teammates won the ball at the back and decided to go long.
The visitors came close again in the 41st minute as Roberto came out for a cross and cleared it feebly, but the goalkeeper made amends by saving Alli’s subsequent volley. Two minutes later, they did double their lead.
Alli and Son played a fantastic one-two on the left flank to beat Fredericks, and Son eventually escaped down the line before accurately finding Moura at the far post.
0-2.
The home side desperately needed a break after that. Their frustration and lack of ideas were perfectly shown by Snodgrass’s unreasonable shot from over 30 yards while having options on both sides, that admittedly didn’t miss the target by much, but wouldn’t have beaten Gazzaniga who had the corner covered. Spurs came close in injury time through Sanchez, but his header was tipped over by Roberto.
At the break, the difference in total attempts (2-11) clearly showed that the visitors deserved the lead they had.
The Second Half
Hoping to send some ripples of energy into his team, Pellegrini left Anderson in the dressing room and Michail Antonio came on for the second half.
Three minutes in, Moura wasted an incredibly good chance, but less than 60 seconds later Aurier was left in far too much space and Kane beat Ogbonna to his cross on the edge of six yards and beat Roberto.
0-3.
Spurs were now very comfortable. They obviously felt the job was done, and they were content to let the Hammers play more than before. Antonio looked very lively in this period, and soon Pablo Fornals also made his way onto the pitch in the place of Yarmolenko.
On the hour-mark, Antonio managed to shoot from around 15 yards past Davies but Gazzaniga read his mind and reacted accordingly. Immediately afterwards, Diop misjudged a long pass towards Kane and the England captain was off, running straight at Roberto, but Diop then produced a fantastic tackle from behind to dispossess him.
In the 64th minute, Pellegrini made his last substitution by withdrawing Diop and sending on Carlos Sanchez. Rice moved back a line and slotted in alongside Ogbonna, while Sanchez took his place in midfield.
It cannot be said that Antonio wasn’t doing what he was brought on to do. From the moment he stepped onto the pitch, he was West Ham’s best player. In the 69th minute, he went on a slalom past several Spurs players and was eventually brought down by Davies before he could enter the box. Davies went into referee Michael Oliver’s book, and Cresswell took the free-kick, hitting Kane in the wall.
But the moment definitely heralded what was to come next. Spurs defended their box against a very determined attack that was eventually recycled by Noble, who gave the ball to Antonio. With his first touch Antonio took the ball out of his marker’s reach and then slammed it into the corner from just inside the box.
1-3.
The goal seemed to have breathed some life into the home side and Spurs suddenly found themselves with a battle on their hands. The ball was now going quickly from one end of the pitch to the other and for some time it seemed like the control of the proceedings was going to slip from Spurs’ hands altogether. With 11 minutes to go, Mourinho reacted by sending on Eriksen instead of Alli, before Moura made way for Moussa Sissoko.
Antonio was still giving the visitors a lot of work but more and more he seemed to be fighting their entire team on his own. He was dribbling past opponents, beating several of them at a time in the air, holding off their physical challenges and trying to set his teammates up, but he had very little support and was surrounded by white shirts all the time.
There were a few moments, some five minutes before the 90 were up, when it seemed his spark would inspire the rest of the team to try harder, but Spurs then resorted to some unsporting tactics as Kane sought to provoke Snodgrass with a needlessly poor foul. The referee responded to the commotion by booking both players, but Kane didn’t get what he wanted – the West Ham offensive continued, and at the stroke of 89 minutes, Rice diverted a header into the net, but the goal, initially given, was disallowed by VAR for offside.
Pellegrini’s men really should be given credit for the way they played in the six minutes of added time, pushing Spurs to defend with their backs against the wall, but they will want to ask themselves where such spirit was before. All they could to was to score their second as Ogbonna slammed in from a corner taken by Snodgrass in the 96th minute.
2-3.
The Afterthought
For the most of the game, West Ham were completely outplayed on their own pitch, and the three points that have gone up on the board for Spurs are well deserved. Football has seen these situations before, where a team whose players seemed rather dejected for a long while suddenly bursts into life as soon as there’s a new manager in place. They’re now on 17 points, climbing up the table from 14th to sixth place, but with the rest of the round yet to be played.
As for West Ham, they will certainly be ruing the fact that Lanzini has been out for so long, as well as that Antonio probably wasn’t fit enough for 90 minutes. Creativity was severely lacking in their lines until Antonio came on. Snodgrass and Noble worked hard and Rice was decent defensively behind them, but that midfield simply didn’t have enough spark when on the ball. The result was that the wingers and the striker weren’t able to contribute at all, and that, along with a few questionable moments from defenders, cost them the game.
Match Report
WEST HAM: Roberto 5, Diop 5 (64′ C. Sanchez 5), Ogbonna 6.5, Cresswell 6, Fredericks 6.5, Rice 7, Noble 6.5, Snodgrass 6.5, Yarmolenko 5 (56′ Fornals 5), Anderson 4 (46′ Antonio 8), Haller 5.5.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: Gazzaniga 7, Sanchez 7, Alderweireld 7.5, Aurier 7, Davies 6.5 (75′ Rose N/A), Winks 6.5, Dier 7, Alli 7.5 (79′ Eriksen N/A), Son 8, Moura 7 (82′ Sissoko N/A), Kane 7.
GOALS: Son 36′, Moura 43′, Kane 49′, Antonio 73′, Ogbonna 90’+6.
YELLOW CARDS: Diop 11′, Fredericks 39′, Davies 70, Snodgrass 87′, Kane 87′.
REFEREE: Michael Oliver.
DATE & VENUE: November 23, 2019, London Stadium, London.
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