This London derby was about as ferocious as a kitten in a onesie with one team having their eye on a far bigger prize and the other unable to focus on anything much at all.
This was the battle - in the loosest possible sense - to not finish in 17th place, like that would polish the dreadful Premier League seasons both Tottenham and West Ham have had. This was certainly not El Classico, with the fans of both teams having given it a more fitting, toilet-related version of that name.
Ange Postecoglou made it clear before the game that he had to pick a team with Thursday night's Europa League semi-final in Bodo/Glimt in mind and he was true to his word with eight changes.
Only Guglielmo Vicario, Yves Bissouma and Richarlison started again from the team that won the first leg as the Spurs boss changed his entire back four and everything around Bissouma and Richarlison in the midfield and attack.
There were Tottenham players trying to impress ahead of Thursday night's team selection and West Ham were so poor that they made a Spurs B team with very little experience of playing together look far more in-sync than they actually were.
In the end a draw was probably just about the fair result although Spurs created the better openings in the second half until Vicario made an excellent flying save to prevent Jarrod Bowen's glancing header from creeping into the goal from a James Ward-Prowse set piece.
Vicario had not done as well earlier in the game with his only other real involvement in the contest.
Spurs had already taken the lead by that point. West Ham centre-back Max Kilman made a complete mess of clearing a ball, hitting it against Mathys Tel and the Frenchman arrowed the ball across the box for Wilson Odobert, who took a touch and slid the ball home with real composure.
However, an otherwise disciplined defensive performance from Tottenham's rejigged backline clocked out for a couple of seconds to generously give their hosts' captain Bowen the freedom of their penalty area.
It came just before the half-hour mark as he was able to waltz down the right-hand side of the box and when still no challenge came in, he sauntered towards goal.
There was no angle for Bowen to put the ball into the net unless Vicario decided to fling his legs wide open. The Italian duly did exactly that to hand the Hammers winger a route to goal from an angle that a goalkeeper should never be beaten from.
That's not to excuse those in front of Vicario, who was captain for the day. Djed Spence was caught well out of position and Ben Davies far too slow to react to the danger of Bowen moving into that space.
There was a big chance for Spurs before the end of the first period when Tel picked out Richarlison's run with a clever through ball but the Brazilian chose not to recreate Bowen's finish and instead hammered the ball across the face of the goal with Odobert not expecting it on the other side.
Neither team could find a way through in the second half. Spurs created more with Pape Matar Sarr playing Tel into the box with an incisive pass but the young Frenchman could only knock the ball straight at Alphonse Areola.
Then Richarlison fired over after a knock-down from Dejan Kulusevski before Pape Matar Sarr struck a curling effort inches over the crossbar from outside the box that Areola may have got fingertips to. Niclas Fullkrug headed over for the visitors before that late save from Vicario from Bowen.
This was not a game of quality, it was not a game of very much at all and Spurs will probably be the happier with a point as they played with a nearly fully-changed team of players who haven't played together much and haven't played much at all in some cases.
"Proud of the players' efforts," Postecoglou told football.london. "It's not easy making so many changes and it's going to affect fluency and even the rhythm of the team, but even the individual players haven't played a lot regularly and it wasn't just the changes, I mean I only made one sub so a lot of them played a lot more minutes than they have recently. I thought the efforts that they put in today were outstanding.
"They were really disciplined and organised. We were disappointed with the goal we conceded but aside from that I thought we nullified their threat as well as we could and they had some decent firepower up front and I still thought we were dangerous going the other way.
"So I'm glad the boys got some reward. It's obviously not a win but some reward for their efforts because I thought on a difficult day they handled themselves really well."
There were some individual positives on the day for Postecoglou. Tel again was bright on the left wing, grabbing the early assist for Odobert and he should have had another for Richarlison. He also should have done better with his own run towards goal.
The 20-year-old was one of those trying to push his claim to start in Norway on Thursday night and he definitely put himself about, winning three of his four aerial duels even if he only won four of his 15 on the deck.
Tel worked hard with two ball recoveries and one tackle as well as his attacking endeavours and one long run back to chase down Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the first, who he forced out of play for a Spurs throw, brought a round of applause from Postecoglou on the touchline.
The Tottenham head coach admitted that the young Frenchman is starting to find his feet within the team and in the Premier League.
"We're asking some big jobs of him, playing on the left and then in the centre. He's constantly learning," he told football.london. "A lot of our guys I know will develop into top footballers. They have to go through this process of learning and adapting and understanding the demands of the Premier League and the demands of this football club.
"We've asked a lot of Matty since he's come in. He's pretty much played in every game at some point. He's taken in the information and he understands the role a little bit better, especially out on the left. Again, important for us. These last few weeks we've obviously had Sonny out. We've needed him to fill that void and I think he's done that job well."
One player Postecoglou is certainly going to need on Thursday night in Bodo is Kulusevski and he needs a sharper version of the Swede.
The reason he will have to lean on the 25-year-old is that it looks like James Maddison's season could be over. The midfield playmaker tweaked his knee in the first leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but in the immediate aftermath the hope from him and the club was that it was nothing too major.
As the days passed so that feeling changed and when football.london asked Postecoglou for an update on the planned scan on Maddison's knee, his face said it all.
"No, it doesn't look great, but we're just waiting for further information. We'll just wait and see. Hopefully we'll probably get some clarity tomorrow. It's fair to say it doesn't look promising but I'll just wait and see," said the Australian.
It's another cruel blow for Spurs late in their campaign after Lucas Bergvall's ankle injury, with Maddison having six goal involvements in the past six Europa League matches alone and 23 in total this season and the man you would want to pull the strings in midweek.
Now that will likely fall to the rusty-looking Kulusevski. The Swede enjoyed a sensational start to the season but he has not looked the same since returning from the stress fracture in his foot.
He did get 96 minutes into his legs on Sunday and that will help him even if he again only showed glimpses of what he can do.
"He's getting better. There were moments in the game where you started seeing he's moving a lot freer," said Postecoglou. "It takes time. You're missing a couple of months of football.
"For any player it takes a while. It's just about getting fitness and getting some match rhythm. I was pleased for him today. The thing with Deki is he just works his socks off all the time.
"I just felt you could see some of that ability to beat people and turn in tight areas and run with the ball, it was coming back. I was also pleased with his discipline today. They had a really aggressive attacking line-up out there. He had to do a really important defensive job for us and I thought he did that well."
Positives elsewhere on the pitch came from a reasonably solid performance from the back four on the whole, that Bowen lapse aside. Kevin Danso, despite some nervy passing, led the way with his 10 clearances, one interception, one block and one tackle.
Davies improved after the Bowen moment and while Djed Spence is yet to fully find his groove again, Archie Gray managed to put his midfield woe at Liverpool behind him with a battling display as a right-back at the London Stadium.
Postecoglou believes that experience at Anfield will simply serve as a lesson for the teenager in the grand school of football.
"I thought Archie was really good, good to get him back. He was disappointed with Liverpool last week, but again, that's part of his learning. I'm sure he'll have reflected on that day and he's going to make sure that the next time he gets that opportunity, he'll handle it differently and better," said the Spurs boss.
"I'm sure he will because he's that kind of personality. I thought he was really good today. Kevin again, it's so important to have him back. The fact that he got through 90-plus minutes was excellent.
"Benny and Djed have been important for us all year to be available. Like I said, you can have the best laid plans like we did last week, but then we lost Lucas on the eve. I need to know guys are ready.
"That's why we've been giving them game time. I'm comfortable that whether it's the back four or the rest of the boys who played today, if we need to make a decision that means one of them starts, I'll be more than comfortable in them doing that."
Yves Bissouma's display in the centre of the park was not as eye-catching as his return to the fold against Bodo but it did continue to build on those foundations and, for a player Postecoglou believes can sometimes let a game pass him by, the Mali international was focused and tried to leave his mark on proceedings.
He made seven ball recoveries, two blocks, two clearances, one tackle and one interception on the day.
Alongside him, Sarr grew into the game after a quiet start while Odobert went the other way, failing to build on the composure shown by his early strike.
Richarlison battled away in the lone striker role and fired over from Spence's low cross after the half hour. He made that good run on to Tel's pass only to hit the ball across the face of goal to no one and fired over before the hour mark from Kulusevski's knock-down.
As important as anything for the Brazilian was another 68 minutes in his legs and the 27-year-old looks to be growing in confidence in his body again.
The choice for Postecoglou will likely be between Richarlison, Odobert and Tel for the left wing spot on Thursday night for the hope is that Dominic Solanke will be in a position to return after his quad discomfort during the first leg.
"Dom's improving. We obviously left him out today but the medical team are pretty confident he should be right for Thursday," Postecoglou told football.london.
There was also a first bit of action for 17-year-old Mikey Moore in more than three months as he came on for 25 minutes or so and made a nuisance of himself, earning Lucas Paqueta a booking.
Postecoglou was asked if he had seen anything from these players that will come into his thinking with his decisions on Thursday.
"Yeah I did. I think it's part of the process to make sure these guys are ready. Last week we certainly weren't preparing for Lucas Bergvall to get injured the day before the game. So the guys have got to be ready and Biss was ready and was one of our best players on the night," he said.
"The beauty about today was that a lot of our guys who haven't played a lot of minutes recently, we've got some real meaningful minutes and I thought we did well on the day. It's important for Deki to play. He's missed so much football with his injury and he's just getting back into some rhythm.
"Pape, Archie Gray, the two wingers, Mathys and guys like Djed and Kevin, I just think it's really important those guys play and have Biss back up again for another 90 minutes and even Richy to play again. It's been a juggling act for sure to try to get to a position where we've got a squad that's capable of tackling what's ahead.
"We're still cursed with some bad luck along the way, but I was really pleased the guys got the minutes today. They're actually meaningful minutes. They had to work hard and I think they showed that they're going to be ready for Thursday."
On the whole it was more like one step up from a training ground match for those players who need minutes than a Premier League derby, but it will serve them well.
All eyes are now on Thursday and the trip to Bodo. It will not have gone unnoticed either that over in Germany, Spurs' record goalscorer was loving life.
Harry Kane finally removed the trophy-less shackle from around his ankle, along with Eric Dier, as the pair celebrated winning the Bundesliga title with their Bayern Munich team-mates with two games to go after Bayer Leverkusen dropped points.
The sheer joy and relief on Kane's face was clear to see in his various celebration videos across his social media channels. He tweeted simply a trophy emoji which said more than any words could.
The vast majority of Tottenham fans will feel happy for Kane. He deserves to be treated with the respect he now hopefully will after winning silverware that will not change how wonderful a player he is and always has been.
Kane deserved more at Tottenham over the years as the club failed to grow at the same rate around him and this is finally his reward for his ascent, even if Postecoglou will no doubt always dream about how last season in particular would have gone with Kane as the focal point of his team.
There is a certain irony that in the month that the England captain finally ended his trophy drought, so Spurs have a chance to do the same without him. It's just the way football fate works sometimes.
First though they must ensure there are no slip-ups on the artificial turf in Bodo. Solanke and potentially Son could be back even if Maddison and Bergvall will not and the north London side must channel what they did so well in Frankfurt last month and repeat the trick in the late night Norwegian sunlight.
For Kane has finally made his history and there's a chance for his old club, even in the most gruelling of seasons, to do exactly the same.
