It has become almost impossible to guess which face Spurs will show so this was, for those invested in their fortunes, an evening of welcome stability. An ultimately routine win brought appreciable rewards: it put them in the top four for the first time since New Year’s Eve and, seemingly despite themselves, Tottenham find their season wide open. Antonio Conte will not have liked watching from home after his brief return to touchline duty but he still had his say and there was plenty to take from an aggressive, insistent, smart second-half performance that bore no relation to what had passed earlier.
Their fans enjoyed imploring Emerson Royal to shoot whenever the ball reached him after the oft-derided wing-back opened the scoring, his goal the product of an incisive combination with his left-sided colleague Ben Davies. But the supporters took even more pleasure from a player who is far likelier to take aim.
Son Heung-min had been demoted to the bench in another suggestion Spurs have been unable to count on him as usual this season. He scored his first league goal since 4 January four minutes after coming on, the smiles indicating exactly what that meant, and if it sets a tone for the next three months then this may yet have been a transformative occasion.
“We knew Sonny’s response would be perfect because he’s a perfect guy,” said Cristian Stellini, the Tottenham assistant manager, suggesting the player had not been fully fit since the World Cup and needed managing carefully. “You have to take a decision. It’s difficult with a player like Sonny but we have to do it because we have a lot of matches and the risk is that you lose a player for a long time.”
What a disappointment this was, in the end, for a West Ham side that must have fancied their chances at the interval. They had been focused during a largely turgid first half and arguably enjoyed the best of what passed for its openings. But a loose five minutes after re-emerging dug them into a hole from which they never emerged. Errors from Nayef Aguerd and Declan Rice had brought chances for Richarlison, who started in Son’s place, and Harry Kane. Lax play from Vladimir Coufal set another dangerous Spurs attack in motion and, while West Ham survived, it was clear something had shifted.
Spurs, by contrast, were far removed from the ponderous outfit whose only serious first-half threat had come right at the end when Richarlison, sent away but slightly wide by Kane, made Lukasz Fabianski save with his legs. Their starting XI had looked workmanlike, Davies and Emerson hardly dynamic attacking presences on the face of things while Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Oliver Skipp grafted in the middle. So it was that, in the 56th minute, they issued a reminder not to judge a book by its cover.
First Højbjerg, deep in midfield, curved a long, low and exquisitely weighted pass beyond Coufal and Angelo Ogbonna. It sent Davies, a buccaneering presence now, into the box with a similarly marauding colleague to his right. That was Emerson, who took Davies’s pass and finished coolly across a static Fabianski. West Ham had it coming and a fightback always looked a tall order.
Had Jarrod Bowen scored, rather than giving Fraser Forster the chance to save, immediately afterwards the pendulum might have swung back towards an away-day masterclass from David Moyes. Instead Son, freshly introduced, bent the narrative to his will. Kane had battled Ogbonna for a high ball and forced a loose header that let him slip his trusty accomplice through; Son finished coolly, and characteristically, to offer hope that a return to his best form lies ahead.
Tottenham have called for social media companies to take action after Son Heung-min was subjected to “utterly reprehensible” racist abuse online.
The abuse occurred during Sunday’s 2-0 victory over West Ham, during which substitute Son scored the home side’s second goal just four minutes after coming on.
Following the match, Spurs posted on Twitter: “We have been made aware of the utterly reprehensible online racist abuse directed at Heung-min Son during today’s match, which has been reported by the club.
“We stand with Sonny and once again call on the social media companies and authorities to take action.”
Kick It Out, the anti-racism group, earlier this month demanded “meaningful reforms” after the Brentford striker Ivan Toney was subjected to racist abuse on Instagram.
PA Media
Any kind of form would be progress for West Ham, who have won once in the league since October and surely cannot afford defeat at home against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. “We gave them encouragement to come at us and didn’t get over it really,” Moyes lamented of that slapdash start to the second period. “Ultimately it came down to a couple of really poor actions defensively.”
Moyes accepted, though, that West Ham need more further forward. Bowen had half-volleyed a chance wide after 53 seconds but, other than his later effort, that was about the best of their attacking endeavours.
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Stellini acknowledged Spurs, demolished at Leicester and outdone in Milan on the back of eclipsing Manchester City, need to “be consistent in this kind of performance”. He had Conte in his ear remotely during the match, consulting over substitutions and tactical tweaks, and that will be the way of things for another fortnight or so. Conte, he said, will not be around for next Sunday’s meeting with Chelsea as he continues to recover from gallbladder surgery but should be back by the second leg against Milan.
Perhaps he will return to a team with galvanised prospects. “It was an important game in an important moment,” Stellini said, and Spurs must not relinquish the grip they have found.
