Son screamer saves Spurs

Son wondergoal earns point after Obiang’s rocket

AS DAVID MOYES scowled and growled orders and cajoled his West Ham team from the Wembley touchline, he seemed to be positively at one with his new role as the scourge of the Big Six.

Having taken points from Chelsea and Arsenal and given Manchester City a scare since taking over, Moyes set out at Wembley to make life uncomfortable for Tottenham.

It was not pretty, that must be said. Not in the slightest. For 70 minutes, this was as brutally dull as any training ground exercise of attack against defence might be.

Then, Wembley was lit up by two stunning goals, Pedro Obiang scoring from 30 yards with West Ham’s first shot of the night, then Son Heung-min matching him with a beautiful strike six minutes from time.

Little had suggested such drama. The visitors barely ventured out of their own half. Half-time came and went without a shot on goal by West Ham and then an hour passed, and still nothing.

Nor did they have much in the way of possession but they defended in numbers and proved stubborn.

Tottenham battered away, weary from making all the running at the end of a long festive programme and running low on steam.

Twenty minutes remained when Pedro Obiang took improbable aim from 30 yards and his strike whistled into the top corner.

‘We’ve only had one shot,’ crowed the away fans as they celebrated one of the goals of the season.

Now Spurs seemed to be running out of ideas. They were running out of time, too, but Son summoned an equaliser with a strike almost as spectacular as Obiang’s. Really, the derby did not deserve two goals of such blistering brilliance but no one was complaining.

And the contest ended with the sort of late frenzy of chaos which has been the norm for much of the festive fixture schedule.

For both teams this was a swift return to competitive action after less than 48 hours rest and the managers each made three changes to their teams.

Marko Arnautovic, who has five goals in six Premier League games and set up the stoppage-time winner for Andy Carroll against West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday, was absent for West Ham with a tight hamstring.

Carroll, having scored his first Premier League goals for nine months against West Brom, returned to the bench, with Javier Hernandez preferred for the isolated role up front.

Tottenham, who threw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 when the teams met at Wembley in the Carabao Cup in October, restored top-scorer Harry Kane to the side. Kane was soon causing problems, in on goal and hooking the ball past Adrian.

Ireland underage star Declan Rice, deputising for Aaron Cresswell at centre-back, was well placed to clear and made an important block moments later when goalkeeper Adrian fumbled a corner. Adrian’s shot-stopping was excellent but his hands can be untidy.

Joe Hart may be in line to return in the FA Cup against Shrewsbury, his first club but he must have sat on the Wembley bench and wondered how he reached this point with such speed.

Much has happened to Moyes, too, since he was last at the venue for his first game as manager of Manchester United.

But he has made West Ham more solid and harder to play against since his appointment in November and some of the most impressive performances have been the rugged ones against the strongest opponents.

Again, his team sat deep and braced themselves for a long night on the back foot, fending off Spurs with five at the back, three industrious midfielders and Manuel Lanzini in support of Hernandez. Hugo Lloris barely saw the ball in the first half.

For Tottenham, the challenge was to pierce the massed ranks of claret and blue and they thought they had a lucky break when Winston Reid sliced a cross-shot from Kane into his own net, only for the Spurs striker to be correctly flagged for offside.

Kane and Son Heung-min forced low saves from Adrian, and Christian Eriksen fizzed one past his post from 25 yards.

After half an hour of constant pressure and intricate passing patterns, Spurs cut through with a more direct approach. A long ball from Jan Vertonghen was headed across goal by Serge Aurier, in an advanced position from right back. The crowd expected a goal as it dropped to Kane in front of goal but for once his touch failed him and the ball rolled wide.

Adrian, warming to the barrage of activity, turned over a deflected shot from Eriksen and West Ham made it to the break with their clean sheet intact.

At the other end, the statistics showed they had no shots on or off target and not even a corner won.

Little changed after the interval. Spurs poured forward, Kane lashed another effort wide from distance and Son was denied by a block from Angelo Ogbonna.

Dele Alli became more influential and Kane refused to give up but West Ham resisted and Mauricio Pochettino’s team became more desperate.

Then Obiang stepped forward to score one of the goals of the season, only to be denied by Son’s effort. Two glittering gems on an otherwise scrappy night.