West Ham Suffer Derby Loss as the Relegation Zone Looms

West Ham suffered their second defeat since the Premier League’s restart. Losing 2-0 away to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

West Ham United named two changes from the side that was beaten 2-0 by Wolves on Saturday. Fabian Balbuena and Ryan Fredericks came in for Felipe Anderson and soon to leave Jeremy Ngakia.

West Ham had the first chance of the game as Michail Antonio controlled a long ball down for Mark Noble in the Spurs box. The Hammer’s captain just couldn’t get a shot off and the Spurs defence was able to clear.

Tottenham started to dominate the first half with Harry Kane and Lucas Moura testing Lukasz Fabianksi from range on multiple occasions. West Ham tried to get themselves forward and was reliant on Aaron Cresswell trying getting crosses into the Spurs box.

The Hammers had their hearts in their mouths moment just before half-time, Son Heung-Min thought he had put the hosts in front. The South-Korean was found in acres of space and fired past Fabianski, however, VAR correctly ruled the goal offside by the finest of margins.

The second half started much the same and Tottenham went close on a couple of occasions, Eric Dier had a shot from distance just fly wide. Kane also missed a good chance with an unorthodox flick within the six-yard-box.

West Ham did start to get themselves into the match. Pablo Fornals missed a glorious chance to put West Ham ahead. Jarrod Bowen whipped in a great cross and found the Spaniard near the penalty spot, but like his wolves chance, he fluffed his lines and missed the target.

Tottenham was still very much in the ascendency. From a West Ham corner Spurs broke forward at full-throttle. The final pass made its way to Kane but he could only drag his shot wide of the Hammers post.

It was the dominant Tottenham that took the lead. Tomas Soucek was unfortunate that a flick from a corner came at him to quickly. The bounce the ball made off of the Czech midfielder and rolled into the bottom left-hand corner.

David Moyes eventually made some changes to what was becoming another stagnant performance. Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini came on to add an attacking impetus for the Hammers.

The changes seemed to make a difference. After a free-kick, Anderson teed up Bowen who could only rattle the frame of the goal as West Ham hunted for an equaliser. But it was Tottenham to get the next goal. Antonio lost the ball and within two passes Kane was clean through on goal and slotted cooly into the corner.

West Ham tried to attack the Tottenham goal after the conceding again but simply lacked any definitive penetration through the defence. The performance was another piece of evidence of how much the Hammers are missing Haller as an attacking focal point.

After the Hammer’s initial attempted reply, Tottenham took full control and looked likely to add a third. Kane and Steven Bergwijn went close for the home side. The game finished 2-0 which saw Spurs do the double over West Ham for the first time since 2012.

West Ham remains out of the bottom three only on goal difference and will be desperate to pick up points soon. The Hammers, however, face the visit of Frank Lampard Jnr’s Chelsea in which the Hammers will have to improve rapidly if they are to get a result.