West Ham failed to cause another upset as ten-man Tottenham continued their perfect away record with a 3-2 victory at the London Stadium.
Two goals from Harry Kane and a superb finish from Christian Eriksen put the pressure back on Slaven Bilic, despite Serge Aurier’s red card threatening to dampen the afternoon for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
The Lilywhites had to endure a testing final few minutes after Javier Hernandez and Cheikhou Kouyate had cut the deficit, though by then, the damage was done.
The statistic doing the rounds before the game was that Kane had never scored an away goal against the east Londoners, but the 24-year-old was at the double on this occasion.
While the opening exchanges were relatively even and the hosts had two penalty shouts turned down – both of those incidents involving Aurier - Spurs were rewarded for their persistence in the 34th minute.
Just moments before, Kane had put the ball wide from two yards, though he was offside and the goal wouldn’t have counted. The striker then made it 1-0 thanks to a superb ball in from Dele Alli, heading across the goal and into the far post.
Four minutes later, it was 2-0. West Ham only had themselves to blame for the second, as Joe Hart’s poor ball out was picked up by Christian Eriksen; the Dane coolly flicked it onto the marauding Jan Vertonghen, who supplied Dele Alli. The playmaker’s initial shot rebounded off Hart, but only as far as the feet of Kane, who wasn’t going to miss from there. The England international has now scored an incredible 11 goals in his last five away games.
7 shots
2 aerial duels won
2 woodwork shots
2 crosses
2 goals
Match-winning display.
Eriksen threatened to turn it into a rout with a well-taken third after Kane found himself ruing a missed opportunity for a hat-trick having hit the post from a free-kick.
It was just as well Spurs had punished West Ham early, as Hernandez pulled one back, slipping away from Moussa Sissoko in the box to head home.
From then on, it was a test of the visitors’ composure, something they initially struggled with in the middle of the park. The absence of Mousa Dembele, who is nursing his persistent ankle injury, was felt in the first half.
Bilic had injury problems of his own. He was forced to withdraw Michail Antonio and replace him with Andy Carroll, who struggled to make any real impact.
Aurier’s needless sending off clearly didn’t help matters. Oliver had no choice but to dismiss the former PSG man after one too many challenges on Carroll. The positive side of the Ivory Coast international’s game is that he is thrilling to watch, mainly because no-one can predict what he’s going to do next. There is a rashness to him that needs to be ironed out.
With three minutes to go, Kouyate set up a very tense finish indeed, but West Ham had ultimately left it too late before testing their rivals. This is a Premier League derby that should be of the utmost importance for them, after all. The difference in quality between the two sides was apparent, however, as Tottenham punished them for their early mistakes. Several players were booked for an altercation in the dying seconds, not that there was any need of a reminder of the tension between the two clubs. Pochettino will nevertheless have plenty to think about after a nervy final 20 minutes.
