by The other four felt different: Chelsea had a numerical advantage, Wolves seemed little more than a late aberration, Aston Villa were a miserable freak, Manchester City a hard point.
But this time – the fifth game in a row in the Premier League that Tottenham have thrown ahead – the excuses are running low. They weren’t good enough for too much of the game, that is the whole second half.
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At the half-time break there was a sense of when, or how much, the home team would score, as dominant as they were in dictating proceedings in possession (which was almost all). But they barely came close after Cristian Romero’s early opener.
The irresponsibility of West Ham’s two goals was understood to be: Jarrod Bowen taking advantage of a nasty double deflection and James Ward-Prowse giving an empty net to capitalize on. But there comes a point where Tottenham’s attractive football – of which there has always been plenty under Ange Postecoglou – must pay dividends.
The home supporters have now won three in a row in the home league for the first time since 2008 and that 10-game unbeaten run to start the season is a distant memory.
“It’s unacceptable,” said Spurs captain Son Heung-min. “As players we should take responsibility. They are difficult to play against but we knew what was coming. 1-0 is not enough, you have to try to win the game.
“The fans don’t deserve this. When you go 1-0 up early you should bring more energy and play with more energy but we didn’t and that’s why we lost. When you have a chance to kill the game you have to play better.”
The first of many Spurs goals in the first half appeared to be the absolute dominant Romero’s looping header, teasing his way between defenders to attack Pedro Porro’s corner.
Slick interplay and the hosts’ quick progression up the pitch left West Ham’s attacking players at bay for large amounts. He was unable to make the visitors push the ball into the opposition’s territory for a moment’s breather before the next inevitable wave.
That West Ham were level within seven minutes of the restart was down to a huge dose of good fortune. Mohammed Kudus’ speculative crack from range ended first with Romero and then Ben Davies straight into the path of the unknowing Bowen, who couldn’t believe his luck with the goal. He duly broke it over Guglielmo Vicario.
Then it happened; the kind of moment that prompts opposition supporters to use that very sweet phrase “Spursy”. Under minimal pressure, Destiny Udogie self-imploded by playing a very awkward back pass to Vicario, his only option was to reach the hare and push the ball away as Bowen was fading on him.
Given the opportunity to shoot with the goalkeeper on the floor, Ward-Prowse’s initial effort hit the post, only to bounce straight back for him to pass into an empty net.
Despite increasingly desperate pleas from the home supporters, Tottenham rarely came close to equalizing. Richarlison’s poor header when he was unmarked six yards out showed their situation.
“It’s another game where we dominated and we didn’t turn that dominance into something more tangible,” Postecoglou said. “We kept the opposition in the game. I thought we were very poor in both boxes today. Those two goals were terrible goals for us to concede.
“This is not about playing good football, this is about winning football games. I try to build teams to win. 1-0 up at half-time was not great for us. Three or four goals up at half-time would be a good performance.”
Asked what he thinks is to blame for Tottenham’s continued failure to hold on to the leaders, the Australian said: “It’s not that he has that conviction in front of goal to finish things off. As simple as that.
“If we were out on our feet you could take that into account. But I don’t see that. At the moment we are just going through this phase where we are called to play good football but I don’t see that.
“What I see is that we have no clear confidence in what we are doing. We have a long way to go as a team and today is further evidence of that.”
Despite guiding West Ham to the top half of the Premier League and the winning stages of the Europa League, David Moyes has faced increasing criticism for a series of uninspiring performances from his side. This was a victory to show the benefit of his pragmatism.
“We were up against it tonight,” he said. “We had to dig in. Fortunately we scratched it. The quality Tottenham showed in the first half, I don’t know if we had the ball for eight or nine minutes.
“We gave a bit of confidence when we got passes. We wanted to do a bit more after them but in the same breath we were very wary of them picking away from us. We are a team that can give some of the good teams a bloody nose. We have that in us.”
