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Tottenham Hotspur played their first cup final since winning the Europa League this past spring, heading to the London Stadium to play West Ham, the first London Derby of the season. And while it took a little while for things to get going, Spurs eventually got the rub of the green. After a frustrating first half that saw the match officials wave off what looked like a legitimate headed goal by Cuti Romero and another penalty shout a few minutes later, Spurs opened the scoring thanks to a wide open back
post header from Pape “Prime Minister” Sarr at the start of the second half.
West Ham’s Tomas Soucek was sent off with a straight red card after an extremely late and high challenge on Palhinha, and the match turned immediately afterwards. Tottenham ran riot from that point on, adding second half goals from Lucas Bergvall and Micky van de Ven en route to a comprehensive 3-0 mauling of their London rivals.
It’s a big win, but there’s also a lot to talk about, especially from the first half which was contentious and at time frustrating. Here are my match notes.
Match reactions:
- Final xG: 0.6 – 1.36. Went up dramatically after Kudus’ two late chances.
- Tottenham have a lot of matches coming up here the next few weeks, so I’m quite okay with a) seeing rotation and b) the rotation that Frank made here. London derby or not, this was a rotated but still strong side.
- They’re not booing, they’re saying “KUUUUUUUUU-DUUUUUUUUUUUUUS”
- There may not (still) be much passing in this Tottenham midfield, but Bergvall was using his motor to really get around the pitch. He was everywhere in the opening 15 minutes but I’m still not sure he’s perfectly suited to the 10 role.
- That was an ATROCIOUS decision by the match official and VAR to disallow Romero’s first half goal. Not only was it not a foul, Van de Ven was shoved by the West Ham keeper and into Walker-Peters, who was trying to suplex Romero. If that’s a foul, then Arsenal should never score again from set pieces.
- And then Romero got taken down in West Ham’s box, should’ve been an easy penalty decision, and the refs do… nothing? Y’all, I don’t know. I’ve got nothing. There is just no consistency in how these things are enforced.
- Once again Tottenham’s starting midfield was pretty much a black hole. Palhinha offered absolutely nothing in progression, Sarr didn’t offer any build-up play, and Bergvall covered a lot of ground but any offense in that half was coming from Porro or Spence on the flanks. Simons and Kudus had to repeatedly drop very deep to receive the ball which killed many attacks early on.
- Related, Palhinha is going to be the death of me. I know what he does well and what he does well he does quite well. He just offers nothing when Spurs have a lot of possession like in this match, and Spurs would’ve been better off with Benancur playing at the base of midfield. Frank got that decision wrong. Thankfully it didn’t matter in the end and Palhinha was quite good when Spurs were up big and against 10 men.
- It’s early, but it did not look like Xavi and Spence combined well together on the left side. Very curious whether Udogie offers a better link to Simons.
- Well, there was no way they were going to call THAT goal back. Sarr was inexplicably left wide open at the back post, and he made short work of the chance. Fantastic corner from Simons, too. No less than what Spurs deserved.
- It didn’t all come off for Xavi Simons, but I thought he looked pretty fantastic in his first appearance in a Spurs shirt. He might have been more effective if the team was adequately set up to support him. But his movement and dribbling were elite. Great delivery from corners, too. I am very excited by what we may see. from him in the future.
- The refs were very bad today, but there’s no arguing that late challenge from Soucek on Palhinha. Just no question, straight red. No way you can say that wasn’t deserved, and it completely changed the game.
- I… may have shrieked a little bit at Bergvall’s second half goal. Incredible timing to get free and onside, and body awareness to head that into the goal. And let’s not overlook Romero’s incredible deep ball and vision to even attempt that pass. The Slack channel agreed it was reminiscent of Toby Alderweireld to Dele. Stunning.
- Bergvall was so good for Micky’s goal. OK maybe he lost the ball rather than intending to pass to Micky, but he drew the defense right to him which left VDV open to slot home. Also love the irony of the tallest guy out there scoring with his foot. It’s like watching Peter Crouch score a penalty kick.
- Should also mention Mohammed Kudus, who had another dynamic and exciting match in what had to have been a cauldron of pressure, playing against his old team. He was booed with every touch and still put in a great performance. Nearly scored late on as well.
- The red card really changed the tenor of the match, but for me there are still concerns about Tottenham’s midfield, their ball progression, and chance creation. Very pleased with a big win over a rival, but I think there is and should be adequate space to talk about where (and when) Spurs looked sub-par at times in this one, because most Premier League teams are going to gift Spurs a sending-off. It will be interesting to see how Frank sets up the team in the Champions League vs. Villarreal on Tuesday.
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