Spurs take bragging rights over West Ham in London derby

Tottenham survived a late fightback from West Ham to take a 3-2 victory in the London derby at London Stadium.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men were 2-0 up half-time through a Harry Kane brace, before Christian Eriksen added a third on the hour mark.  

However, the Hammers fought back with Slaven Bilic’s side pulling one back through Javier Hernandez on 65 minutes. A red card for Spurs' Serge Aurier with 20 minutes to go gave the Hammers huge impetus, and they capitalised on it with Cheikhou Kouyate powering home a header to reduce the gap to a single goal. West Ham dominated the closing minutes, but couldn’t find an equaliser as Spurs escaped back to North London with a valuable three points.

The win left Spurs third in the Premier League table before the 3pm kick-offs, while West Ham were teetering on the ledge of the relegation zone, in 17th, out of the bottom three on goal difference.

The Hammers were the first to threaten with Hernandez attempting to catch out Hugo Lloris with a speculative effort from distance, but the effort was slightly off, landing on the roof of the net.  

A low-octane opening segment to the game saw Spurs have few chances with an effort from Eriksen palmed over by Joe Hart and Kane directing a header from the resulting corner straight at the keeper.  

As is so often the case in football, with the game having bumbled along for the first half hour, a moment of sublime beauty changed the face of the tie. Eriksen spotted Dele Alli free on the right and played an inch-perfect ball over the top for the England international to race on to, beating the Hammers defence, who had attempted to push up as a high line. Alli spotted his international team-mate Kane free in the box and crossed for the striker to connect with a bullet header to put Spurs in front.  

Four minutes later the same duo combined to double Spurs’ advantage. Eriksen again released Alli, this time down the left, where he rifled a shot at Hart in goal, with the keeper saving, but only managing to parry the ball into the path of Kane to smash home to the back of the net.  

West Ham came out after the break with their best spell of the tie as they dominated possession and pinned Spurs back into their own half. But Pochettino’s side are always a danger, even when living off limited possession and so it proved. A counter-attack saw them win a free-kick on the left, just outside the area, which Kane stood up to take and lashed against the base of the right post, the ball rebounded outfield to Aurier, whose deflected shot fell to Eriksen on the right-edge of the area, to guide the ball to the bottom corner of the net with the most controlled and finessed of finishes.  

Kane was denied by the other upright a minute later as he burst into space on the left-side of the area, and crashed an effort off the post, before it deflected out for a corner off Hart.  

West Ham were in serious trouble with a half hour to play before Hernandez gave them a lifeline. Jose Fonte got a flick on a corner, which Hernandez met at the back post to head home from close range. The Mexican almost had a second two minutes later as Mark Noble whipped in a cross to the centre, but this time the striker could only direct his effort straight at Lloris.  

The Hammers were given another huge boost on 70 minutes when Spurs’ right-back Aurier was shown a second yellow card for a needless tackle from behind on Andy Carroll, giving Bilic’s men 20 minutes and a man advantage to score two goals in order to claim a point.  

With three minutes of normal time remaining West Ham did 50% of that job. A pinpoint cross from Arthur Masuaku found Kouyate in the middle, where he met the ball with a thunderous and unstoppable header that almost burst the net as it crashed home.  

The Hammers were given four minutes of injury time to do the second 50% of the rescue mission; Carroll came closest with a header from a corner on the left, but he couldn’t get the contact he needed, while under pressure from Davinson Sanchez, and the ball sailed over the bar, as Spurs held on to take three points from an engaging and absorbing London derby.

Tottenham’s Champions League clash with APOEL Nicosia is live on the eir Sport pack on Tuesday 26 September on the BT Sport ESPN channel.

Image: Getty/Mike Hewitt

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