Published: 2 March, 2016
by DAN CARRIER at the Boleyn Ground
Premier League

WEST HAM 1, SPURS 0

SPURS blew their lines tonight (Wednesday) as they passed up a golden chance to move to the top of the Premiership with 10 games to go. 

They were out-fought in a scrappy 1-0 defeat away at West Ham – and manager Mauricio Pochettino said after the game his players were disappointed with their performance. 

He said: “It was unusual to play this way, without rhythm. We made some mistakes and it was difficult in the first 20 minutes. Today, we started not so good and conceded the early goal. That made it difficult.

“The players are very disappointed.”

He said that Spurs had played a series of tough games in a short space of time.

“We have come through a busy period – in the FA Cup, the Europa League and Premier League,” he added. 

“This is of course tough, but this is not a complaint or an excuse. There are never any easy games and we must recover and be 100 per cent in our mentality and physically. In the changing room, we will be positive for the weekend. We can see what the problem was.”

On six minutes, Spurs conceded a sloppy corner after Ben Davies was pressured into a misplaced backpass. It was whipped in and Michail Antonio beat Nacer Chadli at the near post to power a header home.

Spurs had a few first-half sniffs – soon after falling behind, Chadli had the chance to play in Harry Kane but overhit his pass. Spurs’ liveliest player was Christian Eriksen, who always looked likely to carve some space when he found the ball.

But on a greasy pitch, Spurs found it hard to settle – especially as West Ham were throwing themselves into everything. It unnerved Pochettino’s charges, and they could not get their slick passing and wing play going. When there were little chances to open up West Ham, the usually graceful movement provided by Kane, Eriksen and Erik Lamela was sorely missing.

Spurs came out fighting in the second half. Toby Alderweireld nearly levelled things with a long drive that Adrian in the Hammers goal did well to block. Kane so nearly turned in the rebound but saw his stabbed effort clawed away. Then Eriksen thumped a shot that the West Ham goalkeeper did well to get a hand to. Moments later, the combination nearly found the equaliser. This time Eriksen sent over a deep cross and Kane, who was unmarked, couldn’t get his foot around the ball enough to steer it goalward. 

From then on, Spurs failed to get the ball under control for any length of time and played into West Ham’s hands by lofting long balls forward that were hit without much hope.

Spurs now sit second, three points behind leaders Leicester, and take on Arsenal at White Hart Lane on Saturday.

SPURS: Lloris, Alderweireld, Mason, Kane, Lamela (Son, 68), Dier, Trippier, Chadli (Alli, 60), Eriksen, Wimmer (Carroll, 76), Davies.
Attendance: 34, 977