Tottenham travelled to the London Stadium to face West Ham in Saturday’s Premier League early kick-off. Spurs have failed to take any points from this fixture in the last two campaigns and knew they would have to be at their best to come away from the game with any points.
A lofted strike from Chicharito was the only chance of note in a very slow opening 10 minutes.
On the quarter-hour mark, Hart tipped over Eriksen’s deflected strike for a corner. When the midfielder delivered, Kane rose highest to power a header on target but it flew straight at Hart. There was, however, a foul in the build up meaning the effort would not have counted.
Strong defending from Aurier saved Tottenham two minutes later. Arnautovic flicked past Alderweireld and looked to be in on goal, but the former PSG man recovered superbly to slide in just before the West Ham forward was about to shoot.
Midway through the first half Aurier was released in behind on the right channel and fizzed a ball across the face of goal. Somehow, Kane made a mess of the chance and unlike him, failed to finish. Luckily for the striker, the offside flag spared his blushes.
Kane did open the scoring after a delightful cross from Alli on 34 minutes. The young midfielder did well to stay onside and was released in behind the West Ham defence by Eriksen. He picked his head up and spotted Kane bursting into the box, providing the striker a straightforward diving header.
Four minutes later, Kane bagged his second. Vertonghen played a through ball for Alli, whose initial effort was blocked by Hart. The rebound rolled out to Kane and he calmly slotted into the open net.
The prolific forward was clearly eyeing a hat-trick and just before half-time cut back from the left and tried to bend a strike into the far corner but narrowly missed wide. Kane did have options in the box, which may have proved to be the more sensible option.
West Ham tried to up the intensity after the break and started well, but Spurs weathered the storm and soon got back on top.
They were denied a penalty ten minutes after the restart when Sissoko slipped a ball through for Alli. The midfielder tried to turn past Reid, but the West Ham defender dangled a leg out and sent Alli to the ground. Spurs fans were screaming for a penalty but Michael Oliver wasn’t interested and waved play on.
Spurs did make the pressure tell with half an hour left to play. Fonte took out Alli handing Spurs a free-kick in the left channel, which Kane stood over and hit the post with a low effort. The ball then rebounded out to Aurier, whose deflected cross fell into the path of Eriksen inside the box and he kept his composure to finish into the bottom corner.
Moments later Kane beat Reid and rattled the post from a tight angle. West Ham survived and from that moment onwards, the game changed.
Aurier picked up a deserved yellow card on 64 minutes after tripping substitute Carroll. It had been coming after a number of silly challenges from the right-back.
The home side then grabbed a lifeline with 25 minutes left when Fonte flicked on a corner and Hernandez showed his killer instinct to nod home from close range.
Thing went from bad to worse for Spurs when Aurier picked up his second booking in six minutes. He lunged in on Carroll again giving referee Michael Oliver an easy decision to show him red.
Kouyate closed the gap to one after Masuaku drove down the left flank and whipped in a delightful cross. The midfielder ran onto the delivery and powered past Lloris to bring a nervy end to the game for Tottenham.
The comeback, in the end, came to nothing for the home side and Spurs held out for their fifth consecutive away league win (including last season). Slaven Bilic can be proud of his side’s efforts but will be hoping for faster starts in the future.