Tottenham 2-0 West Ham: Antonio Conte-less Spurs earn bragging rights in London derby

Going back to the top four, with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min combining to score, this is what they like to see as normal service at Tottenham resumes.

Son came from the bench to score after five minutes against West Ham, bursting with pace and a touch to pick up Kane’s threaded pass and a confident finish to beat Lukasz Fabianski.

It was just his second Premier League goal since September, when he came on as a substitute and netted three goals in a six-goal game against Leicester.

This time, the Korean settled for one and shared the limelight with Emerson Royal, who scored the opening goal in a sweeping counter-attack with an unlikely cast, with Ben Davies claiming the assist from the flank.

Together, the goals capped off an emphatic second-half display by Spurs, lifting them past Newcastle to fourth and making life a bit easier for their absent boss Antonio Conte, watching from his home in Turin and preserving a perfect record. for his assistant Cristian Stellini.

Now that’s six wins out of six for Stellini when he replaces Conte, three wins here at Tottenham and three at Inter.

For West Ham, a brilliant start soon turned into a miserable derby loss, leaving them stuck in the bottom three.

A low incident at the mouth of the goal in the first half was mainly memorable for a sequence of slipping tackles from the always reckless Cristian Romero. Fortunately, for Spurs, his timing was impeccable, and the Argentinian centre-back came closer than anyone to finding the net. His powerful header from a corner narrowly missed.

Until then it has been hard work. West Ham made a brilliant start and could have scored in a minute when Tomas Soucek hooked a quick ball past Jarrod Bowen, into space outside the Tottenham penalty area.

Oliver Skipp was given the go-ahead to partner Pierre Emile Hojbjerg in central midfield, in the absence of Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissmoua, but neither were in sight when Bowen crashed wide.

Early concern for the hosts, with their center diminished by the power of Soucek, Declan Rice and Flynn Downes, who came on for Lucas Paquetá.

The visitors converted their extra man in midfield in a brief period of pressing, forcing corners and mistakes, but Spurs grew in the game and were in dominance when a strong penalty appeal was denied.

Thilo Kehrer handled it. Ducking to challenge Richarlison in a crowded penalty area, he intercepted a pass intended for Harry Kane with a strong left hand. There were echoes of Soucek’s handball against Chelsea, although that one deflected a deflected shot on goal and still fell through. Once again, West Ham got away with it.

Fabianski made his first save to prevent a long-range effort from Hojbjerg, late in the first half, and then made a save from Richarlison and Romero beat Angelo Ogbonna through the air and headed in and Tottenham summoned a bigger threat after half time.

Twice, they outplayed Fabianski early in the second half. First, Richarlison with a shot too close to the West Ham goalkeeper. Dejan Kulusevski then stripped Rice and freed Kane, who dragged her from an angle.

The breakthrough came when Hojbjerg released Ben Davies, who found Royal unmarked to score the first half, a goal that appeared to go to the Brazilian’s head.

With her first child on the way, she tucked the ball into her shirt to celebrate and was soon performing a no-look pass and swinging through her Brazilian party tricks as the home crowd chanted her name, right up until a ridiculous tackle from Rammed in Rice.

Fortunately, it was bad enough that he was nowhere near the West Ham captain and he regained some of his composure when Son came on and scored the second.

Between goals, Tottenham needed a strong save from Fraser Forster when Bowen exploded on a long ball touched by Michail Antonio. It was as vital as the goals and the clean sheet a boost for Forster.