Tottenham Hotspur thumped rivals West Ham United 3-0 at London Stadium on Saturday evening, to make it three wins from four league games under new manager Thomas Frank.
The highlight of a relatively low-key first half was a disallowed goal by Cristian Romero, after the Spurs captain had headed home a Mohammed Kudus corner. West Ham, given their recent propensity to concede from corners, riskily gave up a succession of them to Frank’s side during the first half, but made it to the break unscathed.
But just two minutes into the second half and Tottenham were in front from — you guessed it — a corner. Debutant Xavi Simons took it and an unmarked Pape Matar Sarr headed home at the far post.
Less than 10 minutes later West Ham were down to 10 men after Tomas Soucek had been sent off for a studs-up foul on Joao Palhinha. And nine seconds into the restarted game, Spurs went 2-0 up, the impressive Lucas Bergvall powerfully heading over goalkeeper Mads Hermansen from Romero’s pass.
And a third goal arrived from the second phase of yet another corner, Micky van de Ven guiding the ball home on 64 minutes after more good work from Bergvall. The scoreline is Spurs’ biggest margin of victory at London Stadium, but the result doesn’t flatter them in the slightest.
Jack Pitt-Brooke analyses the key moments from the game.
Bergvall continues to impress
When Tottenham lost their last game 1-0 against Bournemouth, Bergvall started on the bench and it felt like a rare misstep from Frank. Spurs missed his ability to move the ball forward and his technical ingenuity.
Only when he came on did they start to threaten. Here at West Ham, Frank did not make the same mistake again. Bergvall started his second game of the season — replacing Rodrigo Bentancur — and he was excellent. The 19-year-old was integral to the 3-0 win, Spurs’ best ever result at the London Stadium.
Tottenham were 1-0 up and had a one-man advantage when Romero got the ball just inside the West Ham half. Sensing that the defence was napping, Bergvall darted in behind and Romero found him with a perfectly-judged clipped ball over the top. Bergvall leapt and looped his header high over Hermansen into the West Ham net.
It was a brilliant piece of inventive athleticism, comparable to Robin van Persie’s famous leaping header against Spain in the 2014 World Cup.
Soon after, Bergvall broke into the box again, received a pass from Palhinha and laid up Van der Van to make it 3-0 and kill the game. He deserves to start again against Villarreal on Tuesday.
Spurs take advantage of West Ham’s set-piece troubles
It is no secret that Frank is good at coaching set pieces. This was perceived as a weakness at Tottenham in recent years but there has already been a marked improvement since Frank took over as head coach in June.
Spurs had West Ham under pressure all game with the quality of their set pieces. They briefly thought they had taken the lead in the first half when Romero headed in from close range, only for the goal to be disallowed for a Van de Ven push on Kyle Walker-Peters. It felt like a harsh decision based on the modern standards for physicality in the box.
But Spurs continued to ask questions of West Ham and it felt inevitable that they would break eventually. And sure enough, right at the start of the second half, they did. Simons bent the ball high towards the far post. Sarr was totally unmarked, and thumped a header back past Hermansen and into the net. It gave Spurs a lead they never relinquished.
How did Mathys Tel work as a centre-forward?
The most interesting selection decision from Frank was to give Tel his first start of the season as centre-forward.
He was the only fully-fit option: Richarlison had just flown back from international duty, Dominic Solanke was out with an ankle injury and Randal Kolo Muani is still getting up to speed. And it was not a new role for Tel either. He had a run there under Ange Postecoglou in February and March last year. But Tel has often looked as if he did not have the physical presence to lead the line, and so it proved again here.
He has a lot to his game, but as Spurs started to fling crosses into the box late in the first half they needed someone who could win those headers. Tel was never that man, although he did pose questions of the West Ham defence with his movement, particularly when the game started to open up.
It has been a difficult time for Tel recently, culminating with being left out of Spurs’ initial Champions League squad. It will be fascinating to see if Frank sticks with this experiment or whether he goes back to a more traditional profile when the other centre-forwards are fit.
What next for Spurs?
Tuesday, September 16: Villarreal (home), Champions League 8pm UK, 3pm ET
(Top photo: Getty Images)