This was a curious one, nowhere near as interesting to watch as the Manchester United one, yet a more emphatic win, and so, one might have to reach for the old you can only play who is in front of you, line.
Tottenham pressured an own goal from a corner taken by Lo Celso, and Harry Kane scored the second to kill off West Ham’s hopes of a comeback, with just 8 minutes to go. To some extent, this was a possession game, which under Pochettino frequently resulted in little to show for it.
Some of our fans famously boasted about our possession against Chelsea when they beat us 4-2 at Wembley in the 2016/17 FA Cup semi-final. Chelsea scored twice as many goals as us and won the game, but Spurs bossed the possession. Phil McNulty for the BBC described us as “dominating”. What a time to be alive, that was.
Against West Ham on Tuesday evening, Spurs achieved distinct, tangible advantages with their 66% retention of the ball, opposed to just a statistic to cling to on the walk home.
Tottenham enjoyed twice as many shots at goal (14 versus 7) and produced four times as much accuracy (4 versus 1) when it came to shots on target.
Which when translated into expected goals paints Spurs as being the far more threatening of the two sides.
This wasn’t a box office game, but it was one that has continued our challenge for European football and left West Ham were they deserve to be, on the brink of disaster.
A bit like Fergie used to say about us. It’s only West Ham. Let’s see how we get on against an opponent who can actually play football.
The Hammers are always a pain in the ar$e at home so I thought it was a very good win. It’s early days but Dier looks like a new man and seems to be benefiting from being coached as a centre half rather than a hybrid centre halve / midfield player. Good work from Mourinho here. Dier’s renaissance along with Tanganga being brought into the fold pours cold water on the notion Mourinho doesn’t develop players.
We’re getting there. Jose gonna silence the “unfaithful and disloyal. All in good time.