West Ham 1 Tottenham 0
Tottenham Hotspur’s long wait to top the elite at a pivotal stage of the campaign goes on. This defeat may not derail their first persuasive title challenge in three decades for long, particularly given events elsewhere in this comically unpredictable race, but frailties previously hidden were exposed in the East End.
A team who had shown few signs of pressure played here as if they realised how close they might be to a first title in 55 years. Their frantic late pressure should not mask the reality they had played choked by anxiety for much of the contest. Mauricio Pochettino has plenty to ponder.
There is no disgrace in losing against West Ham United, a team so irrepressible at times in the first half that their own pursuit of a Champions League spot seems less plausible with each passing week.
Slaven Bilic’s team are a point adrift of Manchester City with this success, for all that the injuries mount and their squad seems permanently stretched. Theirs could yet be a glorious farewell to Upton Park.
It was just that Spurs had come so close to scaling the summit, and a victory here would have been a proper scalp. They might lead the division yet on Saturday when they host Arsenal at White Hart Lane in another thunderous derby, but that has become a test of their powers of recovery. A six-match winning run was checked here with a first loss away from home since the campaign's opening day. In the end, the biggest winners in midweek were actually a Leicester City who could only claim a point.
This had been billed as Spurs’ big opportunity. That flurry of recent wins had hoisted this team on to Leicester City’s shoulder, their challenge propelled by a dynamic and imposing line-up whose energy has allied to underlying quality and a fearlessness to befit the youngest team in the top flight.
Pochettino had been denied Dele Alli from the outset, the England midfielder still feeling the discomfort of the ankle injured in the warm-up against Swansea City on Sunday, but there was relatively little other pre-match disruption. He has made a habit of swapping his full backs and would have expected the same thrust and threat from Kieran Trippier and Ben Davies down the flanks, and the same effervescence from those across attacking midfield.
Yet, as the hostility poured down from the stands at Spurs’ every touch, there was a nervousness to their play that felt uncharacteristic. The hesitancy and uncertainty flared early and gripped when it became clear the hosts’ urgency would not peter out.
West Ham had their own motivation in this derby, of course, the thought of succumbing to Spurs on their bitter rivals’ last visit to the Boleyn Ground utterly unpalatable. Bilic’s side are still chasing the top four having not been beaten here since August, and they snapped aggressively into challenges and suffocated their opponents’ intent at source. By the interval their lead was established. In truth, Spurs, so becalmed, could feel relieved they trailed by only one.
Hassled off their natural rhythm, it was Tottenham's carelessness which ended up costing them. There had been confusion early on between Davies and Nacer Chadli which needlessly presented the hosts with an early corner, delivered towards the near-post by Dimitri Payet. There it was met emphatically by Michail Antonio, the right wing back having dizzied Chadli too easily with his movement to create a yard of space from the befuddled winger, with the ball flying in via Hugo Lloris's left hand.
It was the fourth successive game at Upton Park in which Antonio has claimed reward, form to suggest he, for one, will not welcome the imminent move to the Olympic Stadium.
West Ham bullied Tottenham throughout the period, Kevin Wimmer struggling to cope with Emmanuel Emenike's bustling presence and both visiting centre halves cautioned before the half was out. They were not helped by the wastefulness ahead of them, with Chadli and Erik Lamela, the latter bloodied in an early clash of heads, panicked and peripheral.
Spurs did not summon a single shot of note before the break while Lloris was busy diving to thwart Mark Noble’s drive and visiting players flung themselves in front of a succession of attempts thumped from distance.
The home side craved a second on the assumption their opponents could not be this ineffective again. Those fears were justified and there was inevitably more intent to Tottenham thereafter, Davies and Ryan Mason bludgeoning shots wide as Pochettino paced the technical area, though more wasteful was Lamela's free header planted wide from Chadli's cross. More agonising still was the sight of a masked Harry Kane failing to apply proper contact to an awkward close-range finish after Adrian had done wonderfully well to push away Toby Alderweireld's swerving attempt from outside the box.
Spurs promptly flung on Alli, sensing they were wresting back some authority on the occasion, though Kane was still cursing when he marginally mistimed his stretch to meet Christian Eriksen’s delicious centre and could only dribble the attempt behind. A player starved of service up to then suddenly felt profligate.
The anxiety took over from then on in, West Ham pouncing on the counter through the magical Payet, whose delivery from set-plays defies belief at times, while Spurs raged at their own inability to force an equaliser. Those visiting players who shuffled towards the away support to offer appreciation at the final whistle did so rather crestfallen. West Ham had rather stolen their thunder.
(Guardian service)
