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REPORTS ON ANY other day Pedro Obiang’s stunning strike into the top corner would have been described as a show-stopper.
However, David Moyes’ tactics had taken care of killing off any sort of spectacle long before the West Ham midfielder’s 70th-minute thunderbolt put the visitors ahead.
And in the end Tottenham had to rely on something similar themselves from Son Heung-min to rescue a point from a game they would surely have won with a less frantic fixture schedule.
Depending which of Mauricio Pochettino’s rivals you ask, Tottenham’s players should be suspended or dead.
Pep Guardiola moaned that the 48-hour turnaround in England at this time of year was “killing” players.
Yet on Tuesday night Tottenham’s players had survived some biblical weather conditions in Wales to beat Swansea 2-0. Indeed, they have thrown themselves into the festive period wholeheartedly, though some might say to a fault.
Certainly Arsene Wenger expressed surprise that a few of them have not seen red cards after Davinson Sanchez’s recklessness in that game was met with the same leniency that Harry Kane and Dele Alli, twice, had enjoyed earlier in the Christmas programme – although we in the media apparently do not like to talk about that.
Of course, it does not help that Spurs like to distract attention by playing such fast-paced, scintillating football and in the early exchanges last night West Ham, who also played on Tuesday night, were clearly struggling to cope.
Adrian dropped a simple corner in the fourth minute and the Spanish goalkeeper was relieved that when the ball fell to Moussa Sissoko he fired rather brainlessly straight at a group of West Ham players on the line.
Tottenham did have the ball in the back of the net after 16 minutes, a Kane shot deflected into his own net by Winston Reid, but the flag was rightly raised for offside against the Spurs striker.
From the start, West Ham’s intention was clear, with four players remaining glued to the half-way line even on the odd occasion they did break into the Tottenham penalty area. The impetus was on Spurs to break them down.
Kane had another go at that with a shot from the edge of the area in the 28th minute which Adrian saved well and the goalkeeper again had to react quickly to deny Son moments later. Christian Eriksen’s shot on the half-hour he could do nothing about, but thankfully for Adrian it whizzed a couple of inches wide.
Kane had another sighter when Jan Vertonghen’s long diagonal ball was headed across goal by Serge Aurier an inch too far forward for the striker to get a decent first touch and the ball ran out of play.
It was going to take something special and Alli’s nutmeg pass to Eriksen was nearly it, but the Dane’s shot from 20 yards deflected off Reid and dipped inches over.
So, in their calculated fashion – no shots, 26 per cent possession – West Ham preserved the stalemate.
The increasing frustration echoing around the half-empty stadium going into the break will have been nothing but music to the P W D L F A PTS MAN CITY 22 20 2 0 64 13 62 MAN UTD 22 14 5 3 45 16 47 CHELSEA 22 14 4 4 41 16 46 LIVERPOOL 22 12 8 2 50 25 44 TOTTENHAM 22 12 5 5 42 21 41 ARSENAL 22 11 6 5 40 28 39 BURNLEY 22 9 7 6 19 19 34 LEICESTER 22 8 6 8 34 32 30 EVERTON 22 7 6 9 25 34 27 WATFORD 22 7 4 11 31 40 25 HUDDERSFIELD 22 6 6 10 18 35 24 BRIGHTON 22 5 8 9 17 27 23 NEWCASTLE 22 6 4 12 20 30 22 C PALACE 22 5 7 10 20 33 22 WEST HAM 22 5 7 10 25 40 22 BOURNEMOUTH 22 5 6 11 22 34 21 SOUTHAMPTON 22 4 8 10 21 32 20 STOKE 22 5 5 12 23 47 20 WEST BROM 22 2 10 10 16 30 16 SWANSEA 22 4 4 14 13 34 16 ears of Moyes. The second half began in much the same manner, with Spurs’ depleting energy levels doing little to promote their prospects of breaking the deadlock.
Son’s low shot was blocked in the 58th minute then Alli met Ben Davies’ cross, but his control was poor and the ball ran through to Adrian.
Then Tottenham got the moment they had been waiting for, Eriksen picking out Kane 10 yards out with a clear sight of goal. But 2017’s record goalscorer had his shot blocked by Pablo Zabaleta and Alli could not nod in the ricochet. And then it happened. After 70 minutes without a shot, Obiang found the net with West Ham’s first as he unleashed a thunderbolt from nearly 30 yards that gave Hugo Lloris no chance.
Moyes raised his hands in delight – but his joy was to be short-lived.
Erik Lamela and Victor Wanyama were thrown on to retrieve the situation and somehow Spurs found another gear. And with Andy Carroll also thrown into the fray after Son’s equaliser, a frantic finale filled with the excitement missing from the opening 85 minutes could actually have gone either way.
TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Goal: WEST HAM (3-5-1-1): Booked: NEXT UP: Referee: NEXT UP: