West Ham United 2 (Antonio 73, Ogbonna 90+6) v Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 36, Moura 43, Kane 49) played Saturday 23 November at The London Stadium, attendance 59,930.
Jose Mourinho’s triumphant re-entry to the F.A. Premier League (F.A.P.L.) was balanced by an increase in the pressure on Manuel Pellegrini with now 5 defeats in his last 6 F.A.P.L. matches. Mourinho’s Spurs, or was it Mauricio Pochettino’s re-shuffled, re-invigorated, and re-ignited readily disposed of long time Premier London derbies (PLDs) rivals West Ham, at least in the first hour. There were crisp finishes from Heung-Min Son, Lucas Moura and Harry Kane. That was Kane’s 175th for Spurs, passing Martin Chivers’ 174, putting Bobby Smith’s 208 in sight, and giving a glimpse of Jimmy Greaves’ 266 in 379 games. Greaves’ strike rate was 0.70 goals per game, and Kane’s currently 0.65 – both phenomenal. But Dele (not his brother) was the man of the match from both sides.
Back to the Hammers, who thanks to some characteristic Spurs’ sloppiness after team changes in the second half, scored 2 consolation goals through Michail Antonio, back from injury, and Angelo Ogbonna at the very end. But consolations they were. Next up is another PLDs match at Stamford Bridge on Saturday 30 November. Not only is Chelsea’s F.A.P.L. form very good and West Ham’s poor, but also recent PLDs history favours the hosts with a 2-0 win in 2018-2019 season and 2-1 in 2016-2017, and a 1-1 draw in between. Odds are not looking good for West Ham United and their manager, but form and fortune change quickly in football as we saw on Saturday.
Until next time, enjoy your football, Andrew at PLDs.