With focus firmly on European progression, Tottenham Hotspur still had a London Derby with which to contend. A trip to the other side of town to take on West Ham United was the task, and one which Spurs managed without any hint of excelling.

Ange Postecoglou rotated heavily as expected, with eight changes from Spurs’ win over Bodø/Glimt. Some of these seemed enforced, with some familiar faces missing through injury: neither James Maddison, nor Dominic Solanke made the matchday squad following knocks picked up in that match.

Things weren’t exactly silky smooth at the London Stadium, either. Both sides played like their positions on the table, and after a messy start during which it seemed like West Ham had the upper hand, the Hammers instead turned provider for the Lilywhites. Max Kilman failed to deal with a long ball down the left under pressure from Mathys Tel, with the Frenchman stealing possession and knocking a pass across the 18-yard box. His compatriot, Wilson Odobert, was on hand to gleefully accept and take a touch before passing it into the net past West Ham keeper Alphonse Areola.

It wasn’t long before a defensive calamity, this time from Spurs, resulted in another goal. Aaron Wan Bissaka strode forward with the ball in space, before playing a simple pass into Matt Bowen, whose run had been completely lost by Ben Davies. Bowen made his way to the right-hand corner of the six-yard box before knocking a shot through the legs of Vicario and bringing the scores level.

The second half felt even more pointless than the first. Both sides were playing like teams who didn’t really want to be there, but the stupor was occasionally interrupted by moments of brightness from both teams. Spurs’ best chance of the second 45’ stemmed from an excellent pass from Tel into Richarlison, who passed the ball across the face of goal with no fellow attacker making the run to meet it.

West Ham would have thought they went ahead late as well, with a James Ward-Prowse set piece curled into a dangerous area catching Guglielmo Vicario in two minds. A stooping Bowen flicked on the free kick towards goal, and Vicario was forced into a brilliant reaction save to keep things all tied up. Michael Oliver decided enough was enough and put the fans out of their misery with the final score 1-1.

Reactions

• Another week, another match that doesn’t really move the needle one way or another. Neither side was particularly good here, and neither side deserved to win. Whatever.
• There were some good moments, though! Mathys Tel has really grown in his short time with the club, and he was involved in nearly all of Spurs’ best moment through the match. Yves Bissouma was quietly solid as well; maybe some extended rest has helped him cut down on those errors?
• Somebody who was not solid though was Ben Davies. Davies has been a faithful servant to the club. HAS. Unfortunately, he’s just not up to the standard Spurs need anymore, and that’s been seen pretty regularly in the latter part of the season. His attempt to play offside and his positioning for West Ham’s goal were really poor, and he was continually physically outdone by opposition forwards.
• You know who had a weird match? Djed Spence. He really looked like he didn’t want to be there in the first half, and I counted three separate occasions where he just kind of… stood around, expecting the ball to come to him, as opposition players nicked in and won possession. He did grow into the game though, and as the second half progressed, looked more and more dangerous going forward. I think he’ll struggle to win a spot in the starting XI for Thursday.
• London derbies can get fractious, and this one wasn’t really any different. Both sides could have received multiple cautions, with Michael Oliver opting to keep his cards in his pocket. Two particularly notable misses though were Max Kilman, who seemed to have a free pass to clatter Richarlison, and our old friend Mohammed Kudus, the recipient of a sending off last year. He lined up Djed Spence, taking out the fullback’s legs while he was airborne, and was potentially lucky not to pick up a second yellow.
• Mikey Moore was a real bright spark when he came on. He looked a step quicker than everybody around him, and his touch and passing momentarily opened up the attacking third for Spurs. He’s going to have a bright future.
• Tel passing to Odobert, shooting past Areola… The French Connection. Is this anything?
• It was a bit weird Ange not making more subs; only one with a hugely important midweek fixture coming up, but arguably the vast majority of those left on the pitch won’t be starting Thursday anyway.
• All in all? Job done. Let’s go smash second leg of our semifinal against Bodø/Glimt. COYS!