Hammer blow
Spurs title bid rocked as Lanzini strike puts Chelsea within two wins of crown
At the former Olympic Stadium Tottenham Hotspur failed to scale the heights and with this shuddering defeat their Premier League title challenge faded.
Faded and almost certainly died against West Ham United who produced a full-blooded performance – a performance that sets the standard for them, a signature display at their new home – for their underpressure manager Slaven Bilic and in doing so finally secured their own top-flight status.
It has been an Olympian effort by Spurs to get this close to the Premier League leaders Chelsea, with nine wins in a row, and how delicious for West Ham that they ended their dreams even if in doing so they helped deliver the title to another bitter London rival.
Chelsea, for their part, can now win the championship before Spurs even play again.
A third successive London derby was simply too much for Mauricio Pochettino’s side as they saw their impressive run come to an end and their pursuit of Chelsea falter, just as they struggled to chase down Leicester City last season.
Fortune went hiding last night even if West Ham were deserved winners through the outstanding Manuel Lanzini.
Spurs did not bottle it. They were 13 points adrift of Chelsea on Jan 1.
Spurs are emphatically no longer ‘Spursy’. They did not crumble or capitulate and this has been another brilliant campaign for them under Pochettino even if his frustration was evident long before the final whistle.
In the other vast technical area Bilic was a ‘ jack-in-the-box’ of perpetual motion, particularly when five minutes of added time were signalled, as he cajoled and urged his players to see this through.
When it was over, Bilic hugged his assistants and it was an understandable outpouring of relief as well as celebration because he knows the pressure, the scrutiny has been growing on him during this difficult season in which West Ham have changed their stadium, lost their best player, Dimitri Payet, been stung again with inju- ries – Andy Carroll was once again unavailable – and disappointing signings to such an extent that there is a significant question mark as to whether the manager will survive.
He deserves to. He deserves to anyway without this result but here was evidence, if evidence was needed, that he is the right man for West Ham as he demanded a display of bite and commitment and bravery also – taking the game to Spurs – and got it.
There could be no quibble over the result, the same result as West Ham achieved last season as they also helped derail Spurs challenge.
It was feisty, a Friday feist-night summed up in one first-half statistic: West Ham attempted no fewer than 16 tackles and succeeded in just one of them with cautions for Cheikhou Kouyaté, Winston Reid and Mark Noble who could even have seen red for a very late lunge at Eric Dier.
Still Spurs were certainly ruffled although West Ham will point to Hugo Lloris hurtling from goal and with both feet off the turf challenging Lanzini outside the penalty area. Lloris got his knee to the ball but followed through on Lanzini with referee Anthony Taylor waving away the protests. Kouyaté was distracted to such an extent that he fluffed a chance to chip the ball into the unguarded net.
Before that Lanzini, set free by Andre Ayew, possibly in his best game for West Ham, had dragged a low shot wide and Bilic certainly appeared intent on exploiting the space this big pitch afforded when Kyle Walker – recalled in place of Kieran Trippier and appearing outof-sorts amid the interest in him from Manchester City – constantly pushed forward.
West Ham used the space but also closed Spurs down. Their work-rate was phenomenal and only in one sequence of play did Spurs truly threaten.
It came with West Ham goalkeeper Adrián spilling Harry Kane’s low shot, Jose Fonte blocking Dele Alli’s follow-up and then Adrián saving superbly with an outstretched leg as Kane drove the ball goalwards once again. From the corner Adrián beat out Dier’s powerful angled header.
They had other half-chances – but nothing of substance. There was little of the constant attacking threat they are capable of with Alli subdued, Kane isolated and Son Heung-min marginal although he did force another fine save from Adrián with a fierce low shot across the goalkeeper which was pushed away for a corner.
Just as Pochettino decided to change it, spinning on his heels and calling for Mousa Dembélé to try and be his game-breaker from the bench it was West Ham who struck.
Aaron Cresswell – who also performed well on his return – crossed deep with the ball then turned back across goal by another impressive returnee, Sam Byram.
Ayew tried to fire it home but was blocked by Jan Vertonghen with the ball running to Lanzini unmarked inside the six-yard area who gleefully thumped it past Lloris.
Spurs were stunned. Jonathan Calleri should have ended it as Toby Alderweireld, uncharacteristically, dawdled inside his own area with the striker stealing the ball away and drilling a right-foot shot that was superbly turned away by Lloris for a corner.
Spurs pushed. They had to. But it was desperate. Passes went astray, West Ham threw their bodies on the line and the minutes ran down.
The faces of the Spurs players – Christian Eriksen, Kane, Alli – said it all as they stood motionless as it all came to an end.
As their opponents celebrated, as the West Ham fans goaded them, they knew it was over. The heads were bowed but they can hold them high.
As the Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Arsenal, floundered they gave us a title race. But finally West Ham had a big scalp in the league in this ground; a ground that Spurs had wanted to knock down to build a new stadium here.
Instead this is where their title hopes were demolished.