Friday, January 5

Obiang's rocket wins point at Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur 1 West Ham United 1

Another two days, another game… It's off to the World's End to watch this one over a pint of Camden Pale Ale. The first half is a solid defensive performance with Kane restricted to one shot that Adrian does well to tip away and the defence blocking everything Spurs can throw at them. Adrian also  has to make a great tip-over from Eriksen's deflected shot.

Ogbonna is absolutely immense throughout the game and young Declan Rice also plays really well against top class forwards. West Ham show very little going forwards though, with Hernandez looking unsuited to paying the lone striker role and Lanzini invariably getting clattered whenever he receives the ball. 

The second half goes the same way with West Ham's defence frustrating Spurs' attack. That's until the 70th minute when in a rare Hammers attack Obiang drifts in from the left. Almost in despair at the lack of options in front of him, Pedro drives forward and unleashes a mighty shot that rockets into the top corner giving Lloris no chance. It's happened again! 

For 14 minutes we can dream of another Irons victory at Spurs as Kouyate fails to connect with a great headed opportunity. That's until Son picks up the ball 30 yards from goal. The otherwise excellent Noble can't get close enough to him but normally you don't mind frustrated teams having long-shots. Only Son unleashes another worldie which whistles into Adrian's net.

After great work from King Arthur sub Ayew then almost gets a second as Lloris saves his effort with his foot. The four minutes of added time sees a rally gritty defensive performance from the Hammers as Spurs seem to have about seventy shots blocked in the box. But the Hammers hold out and although as Moyes says, the side are still "a million miles from the way I want us to play" and it's not the West Ham Way, it's a great point two days after the West Brom game. 

We used to get thrashed by the top six. Getting results against Chelsea, Arsenal and now Spurs represents progress. Irons!

2 comments:

mj said...

Now to glean points from Huddersfield, Bournemouth and Palace!

Pete May said...

Fixtures look promising but that's always when WHU have problems!