TV
Sky Sports 1 - (live coverage)
Match of the Day 2  (BBC 1) - Sunday 22.30 (highlights)  Also available online.

For coverage in all parts of the world, check here and here.

Radio :  
BBC LONDON 94.9FM (London area only), Digital Radio (London area only) &  Sky Channel 0152  (live coverage)
Commentary may be found on
>   BBC Radio Five Live (live coverage)  606/939 MW
>  TalkSport (DAB or 1089 MW)
>  Absolute Radio  (1215 AM/MW)

If available on BBC radio, it can supposedly be heard in these countries on these stations ...
Australia (Melbourne) SEN  -  116 AM  Live Transmissions: TWI, Saturday. 12.45 & 15.00 matches
Australia (Sydney)  Radio 2  -  1611AM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 12.45 Match
Singapore Media Corp Radio  -  93.8 FM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
South Africa  SABC (Radio 2000)  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
Uganda  Radio 1 (English) 90.0 FM, Radio 2 (Lugandan) 87.9 FM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
North America (USA, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean)  Sirius Satellite Radio  Live transmission: Saturday - 12.45, 15.00 (TWI) & 17.15 (BBC) Sunday - 14.00 & 16.05 (BBC) Mon, Tue, Wed - Various times (BBC)

Internet :
www.spurs.co.uk   Live webcast  - subscribers only
BBC London - http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/10/12/live_commentaries_feature.shtml click on link to "Listen to Tottenham Hotspur live commentary" on top right hand menu.

  2  Kyle WALKER       
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD 
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN
  3  Danny ROSE

15  Eric DIER
20  Dele ALLI      (  8  Ryan MASON  71)

  7  Heung-Min SON (25  Josh ONOMAH  85)
23  Christian ERIKSEN
19  Mousa DEMBELE

10  Harry KANE     (28  Tom CARROLL  91)

Unused subs: 
13  Michel VORM
16  Kieran TRIPPIER
33  Ben DAVIES
17  Andros TOWNSEND
 

12  Carl JENKINSON
  2  Winston REID
  5  James TOMKINS
  3  Aaron CRESSWELL

  8  Cheikou KOUYATE
16  Mark NOBLE  (c)       (  4  Alexandre SONG  80)
15  Diafra SAKHO     
20  Victor MOSES  (10  Mauro ZARATE  63)

28  Manuel LANZINI 

  9  Andy CARROLL  (26  Nikica JELAVIC  63)

Unused subs: 
34  Raphael SPEIGEL
35  Reece OXFORD
21  Angelo OGBONNA
30  Mikael ANTONIO

It wasn't just the 4-1 score-line in Tottenham's home win over West Ham United that was impressive, but the 90 minute performance that left the Irons gasping, as they were closed down with ruthless efficiency and hit with 12 shots on target that pinned them in their own half for long periods.

In truth, the West Ham side was supposed to give us a real match according to their manager's comments before the game, but after it, his words dripped with honesty as he was pleased to get away with a Three Musketeers beating (all 4-1).  With a pace and crispness of pass, Spurs tore into the Irons almost from the start and made easy meat of their ham(mer)-fisted defending.

With Erik Lamela suspended, Heung-Min Son returned to the starting line-up and the rest of the side was as normal.  West Ham were missing Dmitri Payet, who was not the whole team according to Bilic, but without him they struggled going forward and thus look like a one-man team when he is out.

The visitors had started lively and Cresswell shot way over and Jenkinson had one blocked, as their full backs pushed on, but Tottenham were probing forward into the West Ham box, but without forcing their keeper into action.  The first decent effort of the game came with 20 minutes gone and Eriksen brought a reaching save out of Adrian from 25 yards, after Walker and Dembele had set him up following a blocked shot from Dier.  Shortly after, Spurs took the lead out of nothing .. and it was the scourge of West Ham - Harry Kane - that put Tottenham 1-0 ahead.  Dembele had turned a neat pass around the corner to Son on the right side of the box and he laid the ball on for Dele Alli to shoot.  His shot was blocked and bounced back off him, falling in the area to Kane, with his back to goal, but Jenkinson was too close and on the wrong side to get a challenge in and Kane lashed the ball with a rising shot, left footed past Adrian from four yards out.  It was an instinctive finish of a goal-scorer in confident form.

Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld had taken the view that it wasn't really worth challenging Andy Carroll in the air and let him have the header, as they dropped off him to pick off the flick-ons to nobody in particular.  For all the criticism Sam Allardyce got for playing long when at Upton Park, Bilic's tactics along the same lines were hopelessly inept.  However, West Ham almost equalised within a couple of minutes, when Noble hit a shot that was deflected up into the air and with Kayoute looking suspiciously offside, he produced an acrobatic scissors kick that smashed the ball off the bar, with no decision given by the officials.  You could say it was a let off for Spurs, but maybe also for the men in black, who looked to have made a real error.  Carroll did get a header onto a corner, but it had no power and Hugo picked it up comfortably. But when another Carroll flick on came to nothing, Tottenham built form the back and Son won a corner on our left wing.   Eriksen played it in with pace and Alderweireld lost his marker Reid, who ran into the back of Sakho, leaving our central defender to get across the front of Carroll to power a simple glancing header past the keeper to double the lead.

Spurs were rampant and when Jenkinson was nut-megged by Eriksen on the left wing, the Dan played Son into the area and his low shot was kept out by Adrian, but the ball ballooned up and Alli got to the ball with his head and he was unlucky to see the ball bounce back off the bar.  Kane had a chance to further extend the lead, when Toby cleared the ball to Alli and he freed Harry top go through on Adrian, but the ball was taken to his left and Tomkins got back to distract him and the shot ended up being shanked well wide of the goal, when you thought Kane might finish it off.  The closing down was paying off, with Son winning the ball and Kane being the recipient with another shot, but Kayoute got in the way.  From the corner, Dembele set up Alli, whose shot was blocked for another corner, but this time, Dembele put a cross into Adrian's hands.

Carroll did get a chance before the break, when Tomkins' ball was chested down and volleyed wide.  Maybe he should study some recordings of our half-time guest - Clive Allen - who it was really good to see back at the Lane.  A fine goal-scorer and a dedicated coach, Clive proved he was a Spur from before birth by stating he was at Wembley in 1961, inside his mother's womb !!

Spurs started the second half pressing and West Ham found it difficult to get the ball out of their half, with Alli having another shot blocked before a free kick came in from Eriksen and Kane produced an over-head kick, but it went straight at the keeper.  Within a minute, he had left Adrian diving but with no chance to stop a low drive that made the score 3-0.  Tomkins had played a ball out from the 18 yard line, straight to Christian Eriksen and he shifted the ball quickly to Kane, ho took an early shot from 20 yards out with his right foot and it flew along the floor and into the net.  It was poor defending by West Ham that handed Tottenham a third goal at a vital time in the match.

As in the first half, Spurs almost scored again immediately.  Dembele, who surged through the middle with no opposition player able to stop him, played the ball right to Son and he drove a low shot in at the near post and Adrian did well to get down to it, but did better to react to Eriksen's follow-up volley by pushing it away as it bounced up off the ground.  Every time West Ham cleared the ball, Spurs players were first to it, with the claret and blue shirts slow to react.  When they did get forward, Carroll won a header from a free-kick and Kane was first to it, before Reid could move to the ball.

The Spurs attacks continued on the West Ham goal.  Son's shot was blocked and Kane shot wide, with the only attacks worth mentioning for the Irons were those by Noble on Alli (after twice chopping him down in the first half) and Sakho on Walker, with all four players seeing yellow as the visiting players lost their discipline.  Kane struck an effort from outside the box straight at the keeper, with Son almost getting on the end of Kyle Walker's whipped in cross.  West Ham threatened for a couple of moments, with Lanzini having a shot blocked and then Reid meeting the resulting corner with his head, but it was no problem for Lloris to collect. 

Mark Noble (one of the few players they could sing that "He's one of their own", but they don't) left the action in the 80th minute, just as most of the fans were leaving the away section.  It was to be another tearful afternoon for the player who was part of a West Ham side that got hammered at the Lane on his debut.  He had to sit on the bench and watch Tomkins' header back to Adrian fall short and substitute Ryan Mason was on it in a flash, but Adrian was out to him to block his volley at goal.  Noble would have been even more furious when a fine flowing move by Spurs opened the Irons up and Walker played the ball infield to Son, got it back in the box and curled a shot with the outside of his right foot as he came in from the right to score the goal of the game.  It was a coolly taken goal by a full back, whose last goal was nearly a year ago.

The Spurs fans sung "Why the f@*k are you still here to the remaining few, who did see their side grab a meagre consolation when Walker sliced a back pass and Lanzini seized on it to strike a rising shot past Lloris from the left side of the box to make it 4-1.  But by the time the game was over, the two West Ham players who went over to acknowledge their fans almost out-numbered them.

Josh Onomah had come on for a run out in the last few minutes and was happy to run at the West Ham defence and hit a low shot that lacked any power, but Mason did fire in a low shot from 30 yards out that caught Adrian out, with the keeper fortunate to see the ball smack back out off the foot of his left hand post.  There was still added time enough for Dembele to go through the defence like a hot knife through butter and cross but there was nobody on the end of it.

The Tottenham fans had goaded the West Ham fans with lots of songs about how poor they were, but it was the Spurs team that made them look like that.  The Irons just couldn't live with them and although they sit just below us in the league table, in reality the gulf is immense.  Without exaggeration, Spurs could have had ten goals today, as they ripped into the East Londoners, but settling for four was like declaring at cricket.

With Chelsea to come next week, this win closes the gap on the top four and another win next Sunday will make it interesting at the top.  In the past, Spurs may not have produced such a performance and let points slip away, but this show of strength sends a message to the other Premier League sides and while there may not be talk of a title challenge just yet, it may come in a couple of years time, if this team is allowed to develop together.  

For the time being, let's enjoy them playing like this and see where it take us.

Michael Peck