March 21, (THEWILL) – Tottenham Hotspur beat London rivals West Ham 3-1 to earn back-to-back Premier League victories for the first time in 2022.
Antonio Conte’s side held their composure to leapfrog their top-four rivals and are currently only three points behind Arsenal in fifth position, even though the Gunners have played one game less.
Spurs took the lead when Kurt Zouma sent the ball into his own net after a tense first nine minutes. Matt Doherty robbed Arthur Masuaku of possession and passed the ball through to Harry Kane.
The English striker’s cross to Son Heung-min was intercepted by Zouma, who was caught in a tangle and scored against Lukasz Fabianski, his own keeper.
Immediately after, West Ham almost found a leveller when Kane sent a quick pass back to Eric Dier, only for Michail Antonio to intercept and sit the defender on his backside, but his shot went just wide.
Spurs swiftly moved down the other end and should have extended their lead when Dejan Kulusevski rolled the ball just behind Son’s run and the South Korean hit the post.l with his attempt.
The 29-year-old, though, was not to be denied for long, and he scored Tottenham’s second goal midway through the first half. Kane found Son with a wonderful through ball and the latter employed a series of stepovers to go past Zouma before looping his effort off the Frenchman over the hapless Fabianski.
The visitors halved the deficit before the interval when Craig Dawsn headed Aaron Cresswell’s corner into the path of the unmarked Said Benrahma, who made no mistake from point-blank range.
Spurs came out firing in the second half, nearly hitting West Ham on the break once more, with Son this time playing through Kane, but his toe-poke could not go past Fabianski.
After a brief halt in play to remove demonstrators from the field, the Hammers came close to scoring on the counter, but Antonio shot over from Cresswell’s cross across the 18-yard box.
Sergio Reguilon was enraged when referee Anthony Taylor ignored his protests for a penalty after he was tackled by Ben Johnson shortly after the hour mark, as the derby heated up even further.
Kane could have wrapped up the points ten minutes from time when he was picked out by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and tried to dink his effort over Fabianski, but it soared over the bar as well.
However, Kane had a hand in the final score as he nodded Lloris’ long kick directly into the path of Son, who made no mistake when one-on-one with Fabianski in the dying minutes of the game.
The result means Spurs have a chance to finish in the top four while winning the Europa League now appears to be West Ham’s best path to the Champions League, even if they will appreciate any form of European football next season.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
