W.HAM - Fantastic! (For Spurs)

There have been a few times this season so far when Ange Postecoglu replacing Sonny after seventy minutes with Timo Werner when he's scored, hit the post and had his marker on toast for the second half would have bought howls of derision from the home faithful.

Fortunately however, the game was already won. A fairly even first half with Spurs perhaps just having the edge was completely eclipsed by a rampaging first quarter of an hour of the second half where West Ham did an impression of Spurs at the Amex a fortnight or so before that the great Rory Bremner would have been proud of.

By the time Mohammed Kudus put West Ham ahead in the eighteenth minute (more of him later) after good work on the right by Bowen, Vicario had already made an outstanding save from a near identical situation a few minutes earlier.

There followed around twenty minutes where the home crowd could be forgiven for feeling a little nervous despite Spurs dominating the game before Solanke nicked the ball in midfield, Maddison drove forward and fed Kulusevski who cut in from the right and struck a ball toward the near post that Areola got a hand to before it hit both posts and trickled in over the line.

Hoddle walked on water. Deki celebrates by walking on air.

Ange, who in the post Brighton match press conference had cast doubts on the ability of substitutes to change games, decided to withdraw Maddison for tactical reasons and replace him with Pape Sarr. To say this worked would be a bit of an understatement as around a quarter of an hour later Spurs were 4-1 ahead.

Bissouma had put us 2-1 up after a sumptuous ball from Sonny with the outside of his boot to Odogie who spun intelligently and laid the ball back to  allow him to place a ball into the net from just inside the area.

Whilst celebrating his goal Bissouma spots James Corden in the crowd 

Three minutes later a sweeping move involving Son and Kulusevski led to Sonny shooting and a couple of deflections took the ball into the net. Officially an own goal from the keeper but he couldn't do a lot about it in all fairness. 

Just five minutes after that, the majestic Sarr stole the ball on the edge of our area put a lovely through ball to Sonny who ran at Tadibo. Approximately 149 step overs later, Tadibo didn't know planet he was on, let alone what day of the week is was, and Son slipped the ball between the keeper and the post to make it four.

Son makes it four. Its safe to bring on Timo now.

The scoring was finished for the day but this was as much down to Spurs profligacy as anything else. As much as it would have been great to get the six or seven goals the second half performance deserved, I'd rather they saved two or three for Crystal Palace. As good as Spurs were, West Ham showed a worrying, for their fans, lack of heart once they fell behind. Their best player Kudus completely lost his head firstly kicking Van der Ven twice while he was on the floor, then pushing him in the face after Mickey confronted him  about it, then compounding it by slapping Sarr in the face as well. 

Remarkably, the ref needed the assistance of VAR to change the yellow he issued to Kudus to a straight red. Whilst writing this the FA have charged both clubs with failing to control their players and Kudus with violent conduct. This could see his punishment increased from the standard three game ban.

Kulusevski was rightly named POTM. He's playing the best football of his Spurs career in the more central position. An upside of this is that we're not as reliant on Maddison to be the only creator just behind the front three. A special mention has to also go to Solanke. I can't be the only one who just can't believe what a good footballer he is. He's already an essential cog in the Tottenham wheel. I'm sure the goals will come but his all round game is fantastic, allied to an incredible work rate. Spurs paid a lot ( by ENIC standards) for him, but I'm feeling confident he's going to justify every penny.