Played for both – Jermain Defoe: The England striker spent the first five years of his professional career at West Ham and showed real promise in scoring 18 goals in 74 top-flight appearances. “In the first half we were poor and in the second half we tried to play the way we normally do but it was hard”. Irons boss Slaven Bilic deserves credit as well.
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Everton host West Ham after returning to winning ways with a 3-1 success at Aston Villa on Tuesday, having lost their last league outing 1-0 against West Brom. This is of course against a West Ham team that sat in 6th place and who are not only playing very well, but who have an excellent home record.
Cheikhou Kouyate had the ball in the back of the net for West Ham in the 44th minute after he reacted quickest to Lloris parrying an Emmanuel Emenike shot, but it was correctly ruled out for offside. Kieran Trippier’s lack of defensive heft made his flank particularly tempting for West Ham’s attackers, and Ben Davies found himself pinned back more often than not. It was whipped in and Michail Antonio beat Nacer Chadli at the near post to power a header home. He powered a header towards the near post, which was unable to stop by the Spurs last man Lloris.
First, give them a day off when we can, so we make them clear and happy before the next day’s training. It was maybe the best performance so far.
Spurs came out fighting in the second half.
With 10 matches left, United are on the same points as Manchester City and are fifth only on goal difference. In fact, they gained two goals on goal differential compared to the Citizens.
What’s more, Spurs’ loss isn’t something that should inspire a crisis of confidence at any level of the club or its fandom.
If they stutter in any of those three big Premier League matches – or, in fact, against anyone else in the run-in – some will accuse Tottenham of lacking backbone and steel.
At the back, the Hammers have kept four clean sheets in their last six home games, yet they face a Tottenham side who they’ve only beaten three times in their last 17 league games.
“I think what they achieve this season, if you look at the away results against the teams in the top of the table [wins at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City, a draw at Manchester United], they are very significant and have got a really well-balanced side”. In either case, we’ll now shift our focus to Saturday’s date with Arsenal at White Hart Lane.
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Picture this – requiring a win to secure Champions League football, locked at deadlock with the clock ticking down on the Hammers’ final few minutes at the Boleyn. West Ham were never going to be able to keep up the intensity of the first half for the entire match, and predictably quieted down after the interval.
