|
A fourth clean sheet was perhaps the easiest of them so far, with West
ham United showing why they are near the bottom of the table with an
insipid performance against a Tottenham side that created a large number
of chances, but only took two. Of
all the teams that have visited White Hart Lane so far this season, West
Ham look the equal of some of the worst. Boringly as Wolverhampton
Wanderers and Stoke City played, they did close Spurs down, which the
Irons failed to do and as such, allowed Tottenham to make a multitude of
chances and given the seasonal goodwill, perhaps let the East Enders off
the hook, while leaving their lead from the 11th minute in peril of
being one mistake away from disappearing.
The visitors made only two efforts on
goal worthy of mention, one shot across the face of goal as Scott Parker
drove to the right hand edge of the box and a half-hearted drive from 20
yards from Collison, which was an easy stop for Gomes.
In fact, West Ham left a lot of the
cultured football that we hear so much about back at the Academy, as
they ensured that Aaron Lennon came in for some rough treatment at the
start of the game. Diamanti and Illunga fouled the little winger
early on, but when a move started way back on the edge of the Tottenham
area, it was a run by Lennon that created the opening for the opening
goal. Luka Modric, making his first start in the side since
breaking his leg at home to Birmingham City, played a major part in the
game and it was his possession of the ball on the edge of the Tottenham
penalty area that started the move that ended with him scoring to make
it 1-0. He exchanged passes, moved forward to feed Jermain Defoe
from inside his own half, then the ball went out right to Lennon.
His run took him past Ilunga and his low cross came off Tomkins' leg and
to the far post, where Modric had continued his run from deep to meet
the ball. The Croatian maestro was stretching for the ball, but
hit his shot into the ground and it bounced up and over the diving Rob
Green to bulge the net and give Tottenham an 11th minute lead.
As well as the damage the goal did to
West Ham's hopes of getting anything from the game, while they prepared
to take the kick off to restart the game, Scott Parker was limping down
the tunnel, the victim of a damaged hamstring, which hampered him
tracking Modric back for the goal. On came Jiminez, a Chilean loan
player, who failed to make much of an impression on the game,
while another nine minutes saw Ilunga having to go off with Jonathan
Spector replacing him. The changes didn't make a great deal of
difference to the Irons, as Spurs created chance after chance, but
couldn't get the second goal, which might have opened the floodgates.
Lennon made good ground on the right, cut
infield and laid the ball square to Tom Huddlestone on the edge of the
area and he cut across the ball with his left foot and that ended up
with the ball swerving away from the right hand post of Green's goal,
when a fierce straight shot might have caused the West Ham keeper more
problems. Some neat inter-passing on the edge of the West Ham
penalty area between Modric and Assou-Ekotto saw Huddlestone put through
on the left and he hit a shot with his left foot, but caught it all
wrong and the ball went wide of Green's left hand post. Wilson
Palacios caused all sorts of problems when he went on a run forward and
he set up Crouch for a shot on the edge of the six yard box, as he
pulled the ball back from the right, but the Spurs striker scuffed his
shot and it went across goal.
Just before the break, Defoe was fouled
by Tomkins and got up to take the 25 yard free-kick himself, but his
effort curled just too much and although it cleared the wall, it bent
wide of the left hand upright with Green beaten. There was a late
corner, which Ledley King met with his head, but could not keep down and
it rose over the bar just before the ref blew the half-time whistle.
It was an awkward lead as West Ham were
going to have to step their game up if they hoped to get anything out of
the game. Spurs started the second half spritely and Huddlestone
shot just wide, before Lennon came in from the right hand touchline and
ran across a couple of challenges to hit a left foot shot from just
outside the area, but he was leaning back and the ball went into the
Paxton Road crowd. The ball ended up in the same place when
Palacios struck a shot that was going in before Matthew Upson
unknowingly got his head in the way and took the ball over the bar.
Ten minutes into the half, Spurs almost
went 2-0 ahead, when a good passing move on the right wing ended with
Vedran Corluka found Huddlestone running unseen into the box and he hit
the shot early across Green, who was helpless as the ball went past him
and luckily for the Irons, bounced back off the post beyond the
in-running Crouch and Modric got to the ball, but could not keep the
ball down and it went over the bar again.
A second foul in a matter of minutes by
Franco earned him a yellow card and then Diamanti could easily have been
carded for a rash challenge on Lennon, but he did get one for an
unsuccessful lunge at Aaron, as he darted past him to cross for Crouch
to knock down to set up a chance for Defoe, but the ball was cleared and
Corluka ran into direct a header over the bar with Green out of position
and the defence all over the place. Both players were involved as
West Ham broke forward and Corluka was cautioned for a foul from behind
on Diamanti.
Kovac was the next in the book with two
bad tackles on Huddlestone in the matter of two minutes and he and his
look-alike midfield team-mate Behrami ran around kicking everything that
moved without much attention for the round thing that was the object at
the heart of the game.
There came a period of what came as close
as a period of West Ham pressure on the Tottenham goal from the 70th
minute, that only brought a shot from Kovac, who mistakenly kicking the
ball, reached row X in the Park Lane. When the Irons tried to make
a move through the middle of the Tottenham defence near the D on the
edge of the penalty area, Palacios intervened to stop Diamanti, who went
down easily as he had done for much of the game. The ball was
poked on to Modric, who put Jermain Defoe away on the left. With
three defenders in front of him, Defoe came sideways across the pitch,
running past the defenders until he was on the right side of the D and
hit a shot so fierce that Green was shocked by it and it was only kept
out by his shoulder, but unfortunately for him, the ball broke into the
box in front of him, but also in front of Defoe, how rammed it back past
him leaving him grasping thin air to make it 2-0 with nine minutes of
normal time left.
That sealed the win for Spurs, as West
Ham were not likely to come back from 2-0 and although Diamanti got one
on target to make Gomes dive to hold the effort with five minutes to go,
the rest of the game was mainly Spurs going forward, but no other major
chance was created, leaving the final whistle to signal Tottenham's rise
to fourth place.
A fourth successive clean sheet and
another three points was a good return from the afternoon's work and
there will rarely be easier points on offer. The way that other
sides have battled, West Ham look like a lost cause. It was a poor
performance by West Ham, for all the praise they were given by manager
Ginafranco Zola and the excuses they are injury hit. What they
need to do is get some effort into their game or they will drop like a
stone. It has long been held that West Ham come down with the
Christmas decorations, so Zola only has a week to do something before
the traditional post festive drop-off affects the club's final position
and their financial situation.
As for Spurs, we are looking at the other
end of the table after a 2009, which has seen the club's fortunes turned
around. Where they can finish in 2010, we can only wait to see,
but at the end of the year, Spurs are just three points from the 40
points needed to avoid relegation. They will have to wait a while
to get to that target total, but once they do, they can then concentrate
on pushing on to get as many points as they can.
stanford rivers |
West
Ham United
(Home)
