West Ham United 1 - 0 Tottenham Hotspur: Antonio goal sinks Spurs on the road

Michail Antonio’s second half goal was enough to see West Ham United dispatch Tottenham Hotspur at the London Stadium, Sunday, by the final score of 1-0.

Nuno Espirito Santo opted to play the same lineup he used at Newcastle United last week, given the heavy rotation midweek against Vitesse. West Ham countered with an attacking side in hopes to break down the Spurs defense.

Match Timeline

1’ - We’re off and running at the London Stadium. Thirty seconds in and we have a Lasagnagate reference on Sky Sports. Thanks guys.

8’ - First big chance of the match goes to West Ham as Pablo Fornals rips a volley to force Hugo Lloris into a diving save. Not a great start so far.

11’ - Penalty shout for Spurs as Tanguy Ndombele goes down in the penalty area after a challenge by Kurt Zouma. Zouma steps on his foot and misses the ball....and VAR says no penalty. Okay then.

19’ - Another chance for West Ham on the breakaway as Antonio beats Romero to the ball in the penalty area. Dier cuts out the pass and goes to Fornals, who side-volleys it wide of the net.

20’ - Spurs get a chance at the other end as Kane finds Sonny on the break. He gets tied up by two defenders and feeds Lucas. The Brazilian dribbles a couple of times and fires, but it’s nowhere close to being on target.

21’ - YELLOW CARD - Tomas Soucek goes into the book for a reckless challenge on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.

25’ - Great sequence for Spurs that almost ends in a goal. Romero cuts out a pass at midfield and feeds Ndombele. One touch and a beautiful pass later, Sonny is in on net taking a shot. Fabianski, however, is up to the task and makes a save.

35’ - West Ham keep pushing forward and miss a big chance. Fornals crosses a great ball into the six yard box that Soucek gets his head on, but it’s just wide of the net.

37’ - YELLOW CARD - Angelo Ogbonna earns a booking for his foul on Ndombele.

39’ - I’m not sure what Reguilon was trying to do on that shot, but it was bad and out to touch.

40’ - Better this time from Reguilon as he crosses into the penalty area to find Ndombele. Not enough power generated by the header though as Fabianski makes a comfortable save.

44’ - Close! Sonny rinses a midfielder and helps get the ball to the left flank. Reguilon delivers a great cross to find Kane, but Fabianski stops the near-point blank header.

HALF TIME: Not a bad half but we’re scoreless at the break.

Second Half

46’ - Wasting no time, West Ham are out quickly and threatening. Skipp and Reguilon manage to stifle a couple of shots before clearing the ball.

50’ - Lovely team play by Spurs as progression from back to front is gorgeous. Skipp can’t get on the end of a Reguilon cross but it’s out for a corner.

57’ - Spurs get on the break thanks to Romero cutting out a dangerous pass. He feeds Kane on the right flank, who tries a curling pass to Sonny on the opposite side, but it’s too close to Fabianski and gets snuffed out.

59’ - YELLOW CARD - Romero owns Fornal on the touchline and lets him know he should stay on his feet. Fornal crits his death save roll and pops up to try and grab Romero. The defender picks up a booking for....reasons.

63’ - In what has to be the longest delayed offside of the season, Antonio is at least a full yard off but we wait until the ball goes out to touch for the call.

71’ - Almost disaster for Spurs. Reguilon turns the ball over in the defensive third, resulting in a shot by Fornals. Hugo makes the save but that never should have happened.

72’ - Goal West Ham (Antonio) - And there’s the punishment. Cresswell puts a great ball into the penalty area off the subsequent corner. Kane does next to nothing to stop Antonio and the shot leaves Hugo standing. 1-0.

83’ - Substitutions, Tottenham Hotspur - Giovani Lo Celso comes in for Tanguy NDombele as does Bryan Gil for Sergio Reguilon.

84’ - Substitution, West Ham United - Manuel Lanzini comes on for Said Benrahma.

90’ - Substitutions, both sides - Lucas comes off for Steven Bergwijn. Craig Dawson in for Jarrod Bowen.

90’ - There will be three added minutes.

FULL TIME: West Ham United 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur.

Thoughts on the Match

• I thought our best players today were Emerson Royal and Oliver Skipp. Royal has cemented himself as our best right back while Skipp had arguably his best performance of the season. Shout out to Cuti Romero for also being very good.
• That second half performance went downhill in a hurry. The first ten minutes of the half were good, and then Spurs fell off a cliff. There was one shot on target and nothing else.
• We got the full Lucas Moura Experience™ today. There were times where he had to be the guy to take on the defense to try and crack open West Ham, but as well as he did in those initial dribbles, he would inevitably dribble into multiple defenders.
• I would really like to know why Sonny was moved into the midfield in those final minutes. That’s one of the worst places for him yet he was as deep as Skipp was.
• Kane was bad. The one headed effort was his biggest contribution, but he looks either crocked, checked out or both. His defensive “effort” on the goal was laughable at best. He may as well have been holding open a door for Antonio to score.
• I’m not in panic mode yet, but after the Antonio goal, I said in the writer’s room that I had zero faith that this team was going to score because we looked like we had no ideas. There just didn’t seem to be an actual plan of attack.
• Spurs drop to sixth in the table with the result and will face Burnley on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup.