Tottenham Hotspurs picked their first victory in eight games to leave West Ham with a fight to stay in the Premier League.
Tomas Soucek converted into his own net following Giovani lo Celso’s corner while Harry Kane broke clear to stroke in his 18th goal of the season.
With seven games to go, the loss leaves West Ham outside the relegation zone with one goal difference with Bournemouth, Aston Villa, and Norwich who lie in the bottom three.
Tottenham punished the struggling West Ham who threatened little but saw Jarrod Bowen strike a post as they pushed in vain for an equalizer.
Jose Mourinho was delighted with a victory that takes his side six-point off the Champions League places and with Kane’s goal, which was taken with his usual aplomb after he was put clear. It was also a sign of his increasing assurance in only his second match since a hamstring injury on 1st January.
“I am happy with the results, the clean sheet. It means the team is more solid, the players have fewer doubts”. Said Mourinho.
“We played against a team with a coach with a lot of experience. Moyes organizes teams in a very difficult way. I could predict that but they made it difficult for us”.
“Our bench was rich, that helped me. To be honest, I don’t think it’s fair for West Ham to come here with 24 hours less to prepare than us. At the moment it is not nice”.
David Moyes struggling to inspire
Since the Premier League restart, West Ham has had two games in which they have produced grim performances that confirmed they will face a battle to stay up. The question is, can Moyes summon up the inspiration from somewhere to keep the Hammers up?
“I’ve only just seen the opening goal and I can’t believe they’ve ruled that as a goal. Any handball is disallowed? That’s the rule. Who was on VAR tonight? Not very good?” Said Moyes.
“Those are the rules. It’s not a particularly good rule but I can’t believe it. We had a goal disallowed at Sheffield United for the same rule”.
“I thought the team worked really hard. We made it difficult for Tottenham. There were a lot of good things I can take from the game but it’s the points we needed”.