West Ham United 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Spurs came away from the London Stadium with a hard-fought Premier League win courtesy of a goal from Erik Lamela, but they have keeper Hugo Lloris to thank.
The France stopper pulled off a string of world-class saves to keep the Hammers out, and it’s that kind of form which makes Premier League 2018 odds place Mauricio Pochettino’s team as a top-four side.
The early weekend Premier League 2018 news came from Stamford Bridge where Chelsea scored a 95th-minute equaliser to earn a point against Manchester United, and that meant a win for Spurs took them joint-second in the league, with Liverpool and Arsenal still to play.
And make no mistake: this was a great result for Poch’s men.
This was the West Ham team which outplayed Manchester United at the beginning of the month, and they gave Spurs a very difficult game. Head coach Manuel Pellegrini has the Hammers moving in the right direction, and they’ll feel unlucky to finish this game empty-handed.
Highlights of the game
This was Erik Lamela’s first Premier League start of the season, replacing the out-of-form Son Heung-Min, and he was in the action with an early chance. But for much of the first half, the high-quality of football on show failed to provide much in the way of clear-cut chances; we had to wait until a minute before the break for the deadlock to be broken.
Four Spurs players were in the England team which beat Spain last week, and it was flying wing-back Kieran Trippier who started the move, chipping the ball down the line to Moussa Sissoko. He stood up a beautiful ball for Lamela to head home this third league goal of the season. It was a fair enough reflection of the first half, but the hosts came roaring back in the second.
Marko Arnautovic was passed fit to play for West Ham, and that was a huge boost for the Hammers. He was instrumental in much of the hosts’ attempts to draw level. Aaron Cresswell put in a super cross for the Austrian to head towards the top corner, but Lloris pulled off a magical save, clawing the ball to safety.
Arnautovic tested the Spurs keeper again on the hour, picking up a headed clearance from Trippier and firing it low and hard which Lloris got a hand to.
Tempers flared a minute later with a coming together between Arnautovic and Davinson Sanchez, which ended up with the Spurs man sporting a ripped shirt, but team-mates calmed the situation before it got out of hand.
West Ham briefly thought they’d equalised when Javier Hernandez took a return pass from Arnautovic and slotted the ball home with five minutes to go, but the London Stadium’s celebrations were cut short as the offside flag went up.
And another one-two between West Ham’s front two almost did the trick in the dying minutes, but Lloris came to Spurs’ rescue again.
Key Statistics
Spurs were marginally odds-on to win this game at 1.90 with SBOBET, and the game turned out to be as close as we expected. The visitors had the lion’s share of possession, but West Ham won the shot county by 13 to ten with Lloris making four crucial saves.
Spurs have now won nine of their last 12 away Premier League games, but the Hammers are now winless in their last eight London derbies. It’s only the second defeat in six for West Ham though, so they can take heart from this.
It was Lamela’s first league start of the season, but he’s a highly effective player for Spurs: he was involved in 10 goals in his last nine games, with seven goals and three assists.
What’s next?
There’s another tough challenge for West Ham next week when they visit Leicester City; Spurs will then arrive at the London Stadium for another crack at the Hammers in the Carabao Cup.
Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs now have two massive games to play before they return. They travel to PSV in midweek to try to open their Champions League campaign before it’s too late. And then, they entertain Manchester City next week and can overtake the champions if they can somehow mastermind a win. The return to fitness of the creative Christian Eriksen is a major boost.
Two 1-0 wins, against Cardiff City and West Ham, have put Spurs is this position, but Manchester City…now that is quite a different prospect.
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