Tottenham 2 West Ham 0: Spurs give top-four hopes huge boost but David Moyes fights for job in battle for Prem survival
SO TOTTENHAM are into the top four of the Premier League and with a great chance of reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League and FA Cup.
Nobody seems to think they are having a good season, nobody seems to enjoy watching them and nobody seems to think they are actually any good.
And while everyone thinks West Ham are too good to go down, they have said the same about far better West Ham squads who actually have been relegated.
David Moyes’ side are in the bottom three with 15 games to go, after just one Premier League win in 11 games, with their attempt to grind out a result here failing comprehensively.
Antonio Conte, back in convalescence after his gallbladder operation, will have been heartened by a derby win which propels Spurs above Newcastle and into the Champions League places.
Conte’s assistant Cristian Stellini has now stood in for Conte on six occasions – three times for Spurs and three times at Inter Milan – and their team have won all six.
So perhaps Conte should stay on his sofa with a nice bunch of grapes and watch it all remotely.
Because, after their customary dire first half, Spurs put the Hammers to the sword with goals from Emerson Royal and Son Heung-min.
Son was benched in favour of Richarlison but netted within four minutes of his second-half arrival to effectively kill off this match.
The South Korean has scored five Premier League goals this season, four of them in his only two substitute appearances.
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This is actually just about the most toxic of London derbies, especially from the West Ham side, and before kick-off there were bottles and punches thrown in fracas on the Tottenham High Road.
West Ham arrived here on a four-match unbeaten streak in all competitions but were back in the bottom three courtesy of wins for Everton and Bournemouth on Saturday.
Moyes went for a defensive-looking line-up – leaving five of his most threatening forward players on the bench – but within seconds Jarrod Bowen was fizzing a shot narrowly wide.
Richarlison lined up on the left but was often occupying the centre-forward role as Kane frequently dropped deep.
Spurs should have had an early penalty when Hammers defender Thilo Kehrer appeared to deliberately handle in the area but bafflingly VAR David Coote refused to send ref Michael Oliver to his monitor.
The hosts were struggling to break down West Ham’s defence, with wing-backs Ben Davies and Emerson often their most advanced players and little creativity from midfield.
It wasn’t until first-half injury-time that Spurs woke up, Kane delivering an excellent long ball over the top for Richarlison, who was forced wide and saw his shot saved by Lukasz Fabianski’s legs.
From the resulting Dejan Kulusevski corner, Cristiano Romero – whose crunching tackles had been a rare highlight of the first half – headed on to the roof of the net.
Spurs continued to threaten soon after the break, with Richarlison shooting straight at Fabianski after a Kulusevski cut-back.
Then Kulusevski robbed a dawdling Declan Rice and fed Kane but the England captain duffed his shot well wide when you would have expected him to bury it.
So when Spurs scored it had been coming, it just needed their wing-backs to get forward rather than their misfiring frontmen.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg played a brilliant visionary pass from midfield to release Davies who slipped a ball through to Emerson who tucked it home gratefully.
Son replaced the disappointing Richarlison and was soon on the scoresheet.
Kane out-muscled Angelo Ogbonna, whose weak header allowed the England skipper to roll a pass through to his old partner in crime, who drilled it past Fabianski to put the result beyond reasonable doubt.
Moyes sent on Danny Ings and Said Benrahma but it was too late to affect anything.
At this rate, Spurs could be heading for another Champions League qualification; West Ham to the Championship.