Tag Archives: West Ham United

Match Review 3/12/2016 Tottenham 5 Swansea City 0

Tottenham Hotspur 5-0 Swansea City

Premier League, White Hart Lane, December 3, 2016

Goals: Kane 39′ (pen), 49′, Son 45′, Eriksen 70′, 92′

Tottenham completed an easy 5-0 demolition of a Swansea City side devoid of ideas at White Hart Lane on Saturday.

With both Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane chipping in with braces and Heung-Min Son scoring a stunning volley, Spurs were in control for the vast majority of the match.

The Welsh visitors offered very little resistance, frequently losing possession and allowing the home team to control proceedings for long periods. Dele Alli started the procession after he won a dubious penalty – there was contact but it was minimal compared to his reaction from Kyle Naughton’s challenge. However, a goal was coming as it was hard to deny that given the one-way traffic until that point that a breakthrough wasn’t imminent. Kane smashed in the penalty with power, as is his usual way, giving goalkeeper Fabianski no chance to save it.

The 20 year old Alli looks to be hitting his best form of the campaign, as does Christian Eriksen who has noticeably upped his game following some disappointing, sub-par performances. With Harry Kane back and firing, this is what Tottenham Hotspur need if they are going to be able to keep up with this season’s title race pacesetters.

After the Chelsea result a week before, Tottenham certainly were in desperate need of a morale-boosting performance. This would have pleased manager Pochettino, particularly as his team had only won 10% of all matches in all competitions in their last 10 outings. He won’t be getting too cocky, though, as the Swans were poor. Swansea only had one shot on goal in the entire match whilst Tottenham managed 28 of which 15 were on target. Swansea were so woeful that they didn’t even win a solitary corner in the game or a shot on target.

Next up for Tottenham it’s a difficult away trip to Manchester United, who they lead by six points at this stage. It could be a season-defining match for both teams, with United the bookmaker favourites. If United do end up with a win, they might just take Tottenham out of the title race for 2016/17 in the process.

Referee: Jon Moss

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Match Review 19/11/2016 Tottenham 3 West Ham 2

Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 West Ham

Premier League, White Hart Lane, 19th November 2016

Goals: Antonio 24′, Winks 51′, Lanzini 68′ (pen), Kane 89′, Kane 90 +0.45 (pen)

Drama at the Lane as Kane nicks it at the death

A few weeks ago we noted how much Tottenham were missing Harry Kane. Well, he’s well and truly back now, after a pulsating end to a derby match where he finished things emphatically with two goals in as many minutes.

The match kept Spurs’ unbeaten run going – just. With just a minute of normal time to be played, West Ham supporters were enjoying the fruits of their team’s labour with a 2-1 lead. On the balance of play, they could have considered themselves a tad fortunate to win such a match. After some late Pochettino substitutions, Spurs were pressing but no one could have realistically foreseen what was coming.

Harry Winks celebrates his first goal on his first start

But this game was a tale of not one but two Harrys. Young midfielder Harry Winks was handed a first start for Tottenham and it turned into a dream. The 20 year-old was a livewire throughout the game and managed to cap his performance with a well-taken goal to level things up at 1-1 after Michail Antonio gave the Irons the lead on 24 minutes. It was reminiscent of Danny Rose netting against Arsenal on his first team start.

But there was more drama to follow, despite the match not really reaching many spectacular highs. Dimitri Payet gave a typically skilful display and was at his dangerous best all day. His creativity was the spark for West Ham’s main attacking threat. That was, with the Hammers were leading following a well-taken Manuel Lanzini penalty, until Slaven Bilic took the decision to substitute his star man.

Another substitute, Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son, appeared to be having a frustrating day. He frequently gave the ball away while in possession as well as running himself into blind alleys. However, as is often the case with Son, two late moments of quality changed the game. Maybe he just needed to get his eye in. He became the provider of an inch-perfect cross that met the boot of Kane who gleefully side-footed in the 89th minute equaliser. Then, just a minute later, after a searching run in to the box, he was brought down and earned the penalty that Kane also coolly converted.

In the end, it was a win that Tottenham really did badly need to keep pace with the Premier League leaders. After reaching a League high six draws in twelve games (including the previous four in a row), they will hope that the focal point of Harry Kane will help earn them a few more wins to end the year. However, with some tough games coming up including Chelsea away (a game that Spurs have not won for 26 years!) and Manchester United, Tottenham will be hoping for improved performances all-round.

As just mentioned, the next Premier League match for Tottenham is a cross-town trip to Stamford Bridge to face current league leaders Chelsea. Looking at the odds from the likes of this one, it’s easy to see why the bookies think that Chelsea’s incredible home record against Spurs will spell the end to their undefeated run this season. It really is difficult to imagine a rampant Chelsea giving up many, if any, points in that match.

Or will this Spurs side, who looked to have had the measure of the Blues at the Bridge in May this year until Chelsea salvaged a draw, be mentally and physically tough enough to take revenge? Should be a fascinating game.

Referee: Mike Dean

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Football Round Up

This unpredictable English football season continues on as we head into the end of year fixture pile up. Here’s a round up from around the web of breaking talking points and news.

The view from Upton Park is that West Ham could still be higher in the table than Arsenal by the end of the year. And some concerned Gunners fans are tending to agree, with a lot hanging on the Dec 28th match between the two sides.

Manchester City managed to pull off the great escape at Roma to go through to the next round in the Champions League as not forecast by many pundits a couple of weeks ago.

In the race for promotion to the Premier League next season, Middlesbrough are hoping to head the table by Christmas with wins over the top two teams (Derby County and Ipswich), while AFC Bournemouth lurk around the promotion places.