Lilywhites delight over London rivals West Ham

A quality second-half display saw us leave East London with three goals and three points on derby day.

After kicking off the Thomas Frank era with back-to-back wins before coming up short against Bournemouth prior to the international break, we got back to winning ways with an emphatic 0-3 win over our rivals West Ham at the London Stadium.

Frank opted to make three changes heading into the London derby as Lucas Bergvall and Mathys Tel entered the lineup in replace of the outgoing Rodrigo Bentancur and Richarlison, and most notably our new man Xaxi Simons was handed his debut where he certainly made his mark coming in for Brennan Johnson.

As for another new face, Mohammed Kudas returned to the London Stadium for the first time since his summer departure and was quick to be met by jeers from the home fans. The Ghanaian international did however make an instant impact as his shot within the opening minute was blocked away from danger following a long Bergvall throw in.

The first big opportunity of the afternoon went the way of the visitors as a free-flowing move down the right flank between Walker-Peters and captain Jarrod Bowen found the feet of Fernandes who combined with Paqueta, but his effort 12 yards from goal was dragged wide of the post. Shortly after in the 19^th minute, we had success of our own… so we thought, as Romero powered home an inswinging Kudas corner, but was quickly ruled out by the Australian referee Jarred Gillet for a foul by van de Ven on Walker-Peters in the process.

It took some time for both sides to get a grip on the game with chances coming at a premium in the first half an hour. There were promising signs in the final third as Bergvall experienced some joy linking up with the newly introduced Simons, but there wasn’t too much to shout about in terms of testing the hands of Mads Hermansen in the West Ham goal.

On 37 minutes, Pape Matar Sarr went close as Porro whipped in a wicked ball to the front post which was met by the Senagalese midfielder with a glancing header, but his effort narrowly went over the bar but eventually resulted in a corner.

Despite not being able to break the deadlock as the referee blew his whistle for the interval, corners seemed to be our avenue of success in the first half as we clocked up a total of 8 in the opening 45 minutes and looked a constant threat to the Hammers who have struggled from defensive set-pieces early on in this campaign.

The second half followed in the same fashion as the first with it being likely that the opener would come from a corner, and so it did. In the 47^th minute, we unlocked the West Ham defence via a deep inswinger from Simons which found the head of the completely unmarked Pape Matar Sarr at the backpost to produce a bullet header into the roof of the net. The in-form Sarr made it a goal in three consecutive games for him, including finding the net twice whilst on international duty.

West Ham were keen to hit back with an instant response and came close to doing just that as Bowen fired a low strike down to Vicario’s right-hand side less than two minutes later, but the Italian parried away the effort keeping the score at 0-1.

It wasn’t long after until the first yellow card was given as Djed Spence was cautioned for a push on Bowen. In the 54^th minute, it was West Ham who entered the book, this time upgraded to a red card as Tomas Soucek was the culprit of a late challenge of Palhinha which saw the Hammers go down to 10 men.

After an eventful first 10 minutes of the second half, we extended our lead to 2-0 and made full advantage of the extra man in an instant. A terrific, floated ball over the top of the West Ham defence from Romero was latched on to by the onrushing Bergvall who delicately guided his header over Hermansen at full stretch. It was a goal that marked his first in the Premier League on his 50^th appearance for the club.

It only got better for us in the 64^th minute as we tripled our advantage thanks to van de Ven being at the right place at the right time. You could see that we were in full control as the hour mark passed with everyone playing their role in making sure that the luxury of an extra man was capitalised upon. Tel started off the move before finding the feet of Palhinha who threaded a precise pass into the feet of Bergvall. The Swede composed himself to jink past Mavropanos, and our number 37 swept home on his weaker right foot, into the bottom left-hand corner to notch his first goal of the season.

Four minutes later, Kudas looked to rub salt into the wounds against his former club, as again, the Bergvall long thrown-in caused the Hammers defence problems as Kudas latched onto the attempted clearance to unleash a volley which he couldn’t quite keep from flying over the bar.

From there on in, it was one way traffic as Frank had the three-goal safety net to rotate and get much needed minutes in the legs of the squad by introducing five substitutes in the final 20 minutes of the game including the likes of: Richarlison, Udogie, Odobert, Johnson, and Danso.

In injury time, Kudas came close to wrapping up the win in stylish fashion as he diverted a delicious Porro cross goalwards, but Hermansen was wise to the danger to make a double save on Johnson’s follow up to keep the deficit at three. All In all, an assured performance that saw us come away from East London 0-3 victors and with three points.

Spurs: Vicario, Porro, Romero, van De Ven (Danso 80), Spence (Udogie 71), Bergvall (Johnson 80), Palhinha, Sarr, Kudas, Simons (Richarlison 71), Tel (Odobert 79)

Subs not used: Kinsky, Davies, Bentancur, Kolo Muani

Goals: P. M. Sarr 47. Bergvall 57. van de Ven 64.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Spence 

Red cards: Soucek 54.

West Ham: Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Kilman, Diouf, Ward-Prowse (Irving 90+2), Soucek, Fernandes (Magassa 61), Lucas Paqueta (Wilson 68), Summerville (Guilherme 61), Bowen

Subs not used: Areola, Fabianski, Igor, Potts, Fullkrug

Venue: London Stadium

Referee: Jarred Gillett