Udogie in attendance
Destiny Udogie was watching on at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon when Tottenham and West Ham went head-to-head in the Premier League. Making a huge impression in Serie A for Udinese, Spurs made their move to sign the talented left wing-back last August before loaning him back to the Italian club for the remainder of the campaign.
In action for Udinese as they lost 3-1 against Inter Milan at the San Siro on Saturday, the 20-year-old spent his day off in north London as he watched his new club in action for the first time. Udogie, who uploaded a video from his seat to his Instagram stories, also got to meet his Tottenham teammates at the game as he's not really had that opportunity since sealing his move to the club six months ago and then immediately returning to Italy.
He will have been impressed by what he saw from the team, especially in the second half, as they secured three crucial points with a 2-0 victory. Perhaps he is Tottenham's new lucky charm?
READ MORE: Tottenham player ratings vs West Ham: Emerson Royal stars, Son back with a bang as Skipp shines
Wing-back change works to perfection
With Udogie in attendance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Spurs fans would have loved nothing more than to see the Italy Under-21 star line up against West Ham going on their recent issues at left wing-back. Without Ryan Sessegnon for around six weeks after he suffered a hamstring injury in training ahead of the Leicester City match, Spurs only have Ivan Perisic as the only out-and-out natural for the position as things stand.
Perhaps a bit much for the 34-year-old to start again given his age and with matches in quick succession over the past week, the vast majority of Tottenham fans still expected the Croat to start against West Ham with no other left wing-back in the squad to take on the role. However, Antonio Conte and Cristian Stellini sprung a surprise with their XI as Perisic was named on the bench and Ben Davies instead moved from his centre-back berth to play at left wing-back.
Maybe not the most attacking wing-back selection, both Davies and Emerson Royal linked up to perfection in the second half as the Brazilian gave Spurs the lead with a cool finish after the Wales international had put the ball on a plate for him. It was a very good day for Tottenham's wing-backs amid a few doubts beforehand.
Why Romero went down in the warm-up
Tottenham fans had a bit of a scare ahead of the game with Cristian Romero going down in the warm-up and in need of a treatment. It was perhaps no surprise to see why so many fans had concerns following a nightmare past week or so on the injury front with Hugo Lloris, Sessegnon, Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur all in the treatment room at present.
Footage appeared on social media of Romero sat on the ground with one of the club's medics tending to him, thus causing a bit of a panic amongst many. Thankfully the reason for the centre-back going to ground was so he could get a blister tended to ahead of kick-off.
Once that was all sorted, Romero took his place in the starting XI as Tottenham looked to get back to winning ways after two successive defeats. One thing that was noticeable from his game was that the timing of his tackles was spot on after a recent spate of yellow cards and also a red against Man City two weeks ago.
Not only was his timing right but the aggressive side of his game didn't go as a result as he made a number of crunching tackles on his opponents across the pitch.
Kulusevski's game of two halves
Dejan Kulusevski had the classic game of two halves in Tottenham's Premier League win against West Ham. Starting the season where he left off in 2021/22, Tottenham have seen glimpses of his quality since his injury but on the whole he has struggled to recapture his best form and looked a player short on confidence.
The 22-year-old's place in the Spurs team was certainly at risk going into the West Ham match after his poor display in midweek away at AC Milan, yet it was Son Heung-min, who has also really struggled of late, who made way as Richarlison came into the XI. Kulusevski saw plenty of the ball in the first half but things just didn't go for him.
Not only was he not attacking with the ball as he usually does, the ball was bouncing all over for him on one occasion in the middle of the pitch and one cross was overhit by some distance with a number of players in the box waiting for his usual pinpoint delivery. Kulusevski did look totally transformed after the restart, though, notably creating a couple of really good openings for Spurs within two minutes of the second half beginning.
Winning the ball and electing to tee up Richarlison rather than shoot himself, moments later he robbed Declan Rice of possession and played in Harry Kane, who uncharacteristically fired some way wide of the target. That wasn't it from the Sweden international as he really took the game to the visitors in the second half and looked a total different player after Stellini's half-time speech.
Son the super-sub
On the subject of players who have struggled in terms of confidence of late, it wasn't a shock to see Son drop to the bench for the second time this campaign. Enduring such a frustrating season with the goals not coming his way, not even his recent double in the FA Cup win at Preston North End could see him get back on the goal trail on a regular basis.
Conte's decision to drop the South Korean in September worked wonders as he opened his account for the campaign with an incredible hat-trick in the space of 13 minutes. Many believed that the decision to omit him from the starting XI against West Ham would have the same effect as it did back in September, which in fact was very much the case.
Introduced in the 68th minute, Son was on the scoresheet four minutes later as he coolly slotted beyond Lukasz Fabianski after Kane had got the better of Angelo Ogbonna and played him in on goal. His ninth goal of the season, all will be hoping it sparks a purple patch in front of goal in what remains of the campaign as was the case 12 months ago.
With Tottenham now ahead of Newcastle in the top-four race and with Champions League and FA Cup football on the agenda, they are going to need Son at the peaks of his powers over the coming weeks. Hopefully it is a start of things to come.
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