West Ham have spent much of this season generating headlines for all the wrong reasons. An away game would normally have meant a welcome reprieve to the goings on at the Olympic Stadium, a trip to White Hart Lane led to some chaotic scenes both on and off the pitch.
With the increased police presence in and around the ground, potential problems were dealt with efficiently. Some neither defence could say about themselves in Saturday’s roller coaster London derby. Going into the game Tottenham were the only unbeaten team remaining in the Premier League, but had drawn the previous four matches. While West Ham had really struggled in the league, sitting just a single point ahead of the relegation zone.
Diafra Sakho and Winston Reid returned to West Ham’s starting XI after their 1-1 draw at home to Stoke the week before. While Vincent Janssen was handed a start along with debutant Harry Winks who’d seen less than 10 minutes of action in the Premier League prior to this match.
Tottenham boasted the majority of the possession in the opening 45 minutes but did little with it. They failed to manage a shot on target and appeared to be overrun in large areas of the pitch as they adjusted their formation to counter West Ham’s back three. It backfired. They went into the break a goal down to a team that had lost 6 of their last 7 away league matches.
West Ham’s early control of this derby was in large part due to an early goal. Michail Antonio headed the ball into the back of the net just 24 minutes into proceedings. It was his 11th header in the Premier League in 2016. Seven more than Tottenham have managed themselves.
Before the match, some questions were raised over Winks’ inclusion in the starting XI in such an important match. Spurs were on a winless run of 7 matches and really needed a win here. The youngster repaid his manager’s faith in full by netting an equaliser shortly after the break. His performance throughout the game was tireless, making more tackles (3) than any of his teammates.
But it was Harry Kane that ultimately saw Spurs win their first game since the first week of October and drew praise from his manager. Euphoric from a win over bitter rivals, Mauricio Pochettino declared Harry Kane as “one of the best strikers in the world.” After Tottenham had fallen behind West Ham once again it was up to Kane to score not one but two goals to remain within touching distance of Arsenal. Kane has now scored 18 goals in his 22 London derbies.
Pochettino will be hoping that things start to click for summer signing Vincent Janssen sooner than later. Spurs have two important fixtures coming up this week - Monaco and then Chelsea. The forward completed just 5 passes on Saturday, fewer than any player to start a Premier League match this weekend. His only impact on the game was the foul on Winston Reid that led to a penalty and West Ham's second goal, the most goals they conceded in a league game since shipping 5 to Newcastle on the final day of last season.
