There is no love lost between West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur so what El Hadji Malick Diouf did after the 3-0 defeat was rather naïve.
Believe it or not the end of this season will mark 20 years since the infamous lasagne-gate incident when West Ham welcomed Tottenham to east London.
Spurs were visiting Upton Park on the final day of that season looking to clinch a Champions League spot and West Ham were preparing to play in the FA Cup final.
Tottenham just needed to match Arsenal’s result against Wigan in order to clinch the final Champions League spot at their bitter rivals’ expense.
A delicious possibility so good Spurs could almost taste it until disaster struck from an unlikely sauce.
Spurs’ team meal of lasagne caused an outbreak of vomiting and nausea among the players at their Canary Wharf hotel on the eve of the game.
A strong Hammers performance coupled with the impact of the dodgy Italian dish saw Tottenham lose 2-1 and miss out on the Champions League.
Do Potter and his players get the West Ham vs Spurs rivalry?
Arsenal fans sung bubbles at Highbury to rub salt in the wound.
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After Millwall, Spurs are West Ham’s most hated rivals.
The clubs simply do not like one another on or off the pitch from the terraces to the boardroom.
Daniel Levy famously fell out with Hammers vice-chair Karren Brady over the “battle” for the London Stadium.
The now passed David Gold publicly lambasted Levy after he reneged on a deal for West Ham to sign Emmanuel Adebayor from Tottenham.
There have been bites and fights – as recently as Mohammed Kudus flooring three Spurs players just last season.
And not a single player moved between the two clubs for over 14 years until Kudus crossed the divide this summer.
The point being, West Ham and Spurs really do not like one another.
Not that you would have known it from the Hammers’ timid and meek second half surrender to their fierce foes at the London Stadium on Saturday night.
Tottenham took great pleasure in dismantling West Ham 3-0.
The result and performance has piled pressure back on Graham Potter, who was allegedly being considered by Levy as a mid-season replacement for Ange Postecoglou at Spurs before he joined the Hammers last season.
Potter has been trying to find the positives after the game.
But even one of the few who shone have somehow managed to put their foot in it.
West Ham fans must lay off Diouf after ill-advised Spurs post
However, West Ham fans must lay off El Hadji Malick Diouf after his ill-advised Spurs post.
Diouf was one of the bright sparks for the Hammers against Spurs.
The Senegal left-back looks a real find for West Ham and has been mostly excellent since his arrival in a £19m deal from Slavia Prague.
Diouf was one of the very few who could come off the pitch with his head held high.
He was West Ham’s best player on the day, keeping Kudus largely quiet. Diouf was the only one to get stuck into the former Hammer.
Going forward he looked a real threat too, providing a number of brilliant crosses only to be let down by Potter’s inexplicable decision not to play with a striker for one of the biggest games of West Ham’s season.
Hammers fans are in no mood to be antagonised at the moment.
Sarr celebrates beating West Ham and Diouf responds with love hearts
Tottenham have been trolling the Hammers with incessant posts about Kudus.
And a video emerged showing goalscorer Pape Matar Sarr laughing and joking with his international teammate Diouf about a bet they had made that the loser had to cook the winner dinner.
Taking the raw emotion out of it, the video was pretty wholesome.
But many fans have taken a different view on the fact Diouf then responded to Sarr’s social media post about beating West Ham, with love hearts.
“This is how we bounce back,” Sarr said in his post alongside a picture of him celebrating his goal at the London Stadium.
Diouf then replied in the comments with two love hearts.
Yes it is very naïve from Diouf and someone in the West Ham media team needs to have a word.
Hammers fans need to keep some perspective, though.
If every player on the pitch put in the same level of energy, effort and enthusiasm as Diouf, West Ham would be a different animal.
Hammers must cut bright spark Diouf some slack
Keep all your badge-kissing and chest thumping, Hammers fans would rather see that in the performances on the pitch.
Supporters need to give Diouf a pass in this case.
Let’s first remember he is only 20.
He probably knows West Ham vs Spurs is a big game.
But with softly-spoken, mild-mannered Potter as his manager, Diouf probably doesn’t quite realise how huge the rivalry is.
Most Hammers fans are not even sure Potter has grasped that.
Especially given he stated he wanted Spurs to go on and win the Europa League last season – which they duly did, securing Champions League football and an instant £100m advantage over his side in the summer which they used to sign one of his best players.
When Diouf arrived at West Ham he named Sarr as his best friend in football.
These are two boys who have realised – by their own admissions – every young African footballer’s dream of making it to the Premier League.
It was their first game against one another and Diouf is clearly just a nice guy with a big heart.
He will know not to do it again but let’s cut him some slack, after all he is one of the only positives so far this season.