Tottenham roared back to beat West Ham 4-1 on Saturday, scoring three goals in eight frantic second-half minutes to ease the pain of their recent collapse against Brighton.
The teams were level at half-time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after Mohammed Kudus’s opener against the run of play was cancelled out by the impressive Dejan Kulusevski.
But the match totally changed complexion early in the second half when Yves Bissouma, an own goal from West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola and a fourth from Son Heung-min took the game away from West Ham.
A third win in four Premier League games lifted Ange Postecoglou’s men to sixth in the table ahead of the later kick-offs but heaps the pressure on new West Ham coach Julen Lopetegui.
Victory for Spurs comes after they blew a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 defeat at Brighton in their final league game before the international break.
“Second half was outstanding from the lads — good energy, good goals, good football, probably should have created a couple more,” said Tottenham’s Australian manager Postecoglou.
“That’s what you want to generate at home. The crowd played their part…. We’ve had periods so far this year when we haven’t capitalised but today we did capitalise and if we continue that then we will be hard to stop.”
Spurs control
Spurs were in control of the match early on but West Ham played their part in an absorbingly open contest, giving their hosts a scare when Jarrod Bowen surged down the right and cut back to Kudus, whose stinging shot was palmed away by Guglielmo Vicario.
Tottenham captain Son went close soon afterwards after creating space for himself but it was the visitors who broke the deadlock, making their opponents pay for not learning their lessons.
Kudus found the net for the second successive game in the 18th minute following more good work down the right by Bowen, whose shot deflected into the path of the Ghana international.
Brennan Johnson squandered an opportunity with his head and Areola reacted sharply to keep out a deflected Pedro Porro effort but Spurs got the equaliser they deserved in the 36th minute.
West Ham lost the ball while on the attack and James Maddison surged forward to feed Kulusevski, whose shot came off the inside of both posts before crossing the line despite Areola getting his fingertips to it.
A measure of Tottenham’s dominance during the first half was that they won 12 corners to two for West Ham.
Postecoglou replaced England midfielder Maddison with Pape Sarr at half-time in a surprise tactical switch but it paid early dividends.
Son played a lovely pass with the outside of his right foot to find Destiny Udogie, whose calm cut-back was met by Bissouma, who stroked the ball home in the 52nd minute.
Lopetegui prepared to make a triple change but did not have time before an own goal from Areola following more good work by Son made the score 3-1 three minutes later.
South Korean international Son extended Tottenham’s lead on the hour mark when Sarr sent him clear and he beat Jean-Clair Todibo before squeezing his shot past Areola.
A minute later Son, playing his first match since late September after suffering a hamstring injury, hit the post as West Ham struggled to stay afloat.
Kudus was shown a straight red in the final minutes after a VAR check following a melee, compounding a bad day for the visitors, who have just two wins from eight Premier League matches this season.
