As the song goes, goes, ‘two out of three ain’t bad’ — and that’s exactly what West Ham United got today.
Now the Sunday Premier League fixtures have played out, because if you’d asked me at the start of the day which results I wanted, it would have been defeats for Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur, and Crystal Palace.
As I discussed in my earlier blog, Palace perhaps got a little lucky, scraping through against a 10-man Wolverhampton Wanderers side, whilst Forest were beaten at home by Liverpool.
Then all attention turned to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where new Spurs boss Igor Tudor took charge of his first match against North London rivals Arsenal.
In the end, the Gunners ran out 4–1 winners, although the game was probably tighter than the scoreline suggests. Quite how Gabriel Magalhães got away with what looked like a blatant dive to chalk off a Spurs equaliser is beyond me — but I’m not complaining. As a West Ham fan, we needed Tottenham to lose this one.
There was also a bit of over indulgence from former hammer Decan Rice who handed Spurs an equaliser to make it 1-1 immediately after Eze had put Arsenal ahead.
Pressure Mounts as West Ham Stay in Touch
After 27 games played, the Hammers remain in the relegation zone — but now only two points behind Forest and four behind Spurs.
As we enter the business end of the Premier League season, Tottenham never truly convinced in the North London derby. The truth is Arsenal barely had to get out of second gear to win, yet it was clear both managers were under pressure — albeit for very different reasons.
Looking at Spurs’ remaining fixtures, I suspect they’ll probably be okay. But pressure can do funny things to managers, and they’re currently battling something of an injury crisis, as the Sky Sports commentators were keen to remind us throughout.
It’s tight at the bottom. There were points this season when I genuinely didn’t believe West Ham would still be in touch with a pack that looked as though it had broken away. So for that alone, we can be grateful.
That said, it’s hard not to reflect on yesterday’s draw with AFC Bournemouth and wonder what might have been — particularly as many, myself included, felt West Ham were the better side.
But we move on.
There are still plenty of twists and turns left in this Premier League season — and West Ham remain right in the mix.