José Mourinho will say that he is proud of his men, that the second half was very serious, that he deserved another luck. And he will be right. But he will look at the table and see that he is still sunk in the Premier League, giving way and adding defeats, moving away, perhaps definitively, from the European qualifying zone.
The executioner on duty was West Ham, who beat Tottenham 2-1 and solidified in fourth place in the table, while their rival is still far from everything, in the ninth box.
The first half, full of inaccuracies and few options for the arc, condemned the visiting team, which had Dávinson Sánchez as the starter, with some lime and others sand.
The Colombian suffered from 5 minutes due to a confusion between Dyer and Tanganga and yes, a center that was passed to Davinson and all, confused asking for a foul that did not whistle, while Antonio appeared in the middle for, in two time, punish Lloris.
And it could have been worse as at 10 he forgave Lingard for deciding badly in the end, after beating Davinson on his back. He did not paint the picture well for the Colombian or for Mourinho.
Tottenham reacted until the 12th minute, in a great race of Lamela that could not capitalize Kane. A hard clash with the Colombian forced Soucek to score points in the eyebrow and West Ham to play with ten for several minutes, which the ‘Spurs’ failed to capitalize on.
He saved Lloris from Davinson at 37 when he beat Dawson in the header and was still 1 Tottenham who ran a lot but only had a couple of shots on goal from Lamela (42) and Kane (45 + 1) before to lower the shutter in the first half.
And nothing changed for the complement, or yes: Bale arrived instead of Lamela (all very Mourinho, take out the only one who tried) and, with delayed effect on behalf of the VAR, West Ham scored the second to from the first minute of play, when Lingard slipped between Dier and Sanchez – again the Colombian a second late – and the score was 2-0. All bad for Mourinho.
But the difference is always made by talent and that has a lot to do with Tottenham’s payroll, which he discounted at 63 in a free kick from Bale that was left to Lucas Moura.
‘Mou’s team was filled with confidence, Dávinson was entrusted with winning a key ball in the line against Benhrama and another against Fornals, while Son escaped the tie in the center of Kane.
At 78 there was a miracle in the West Ham area: Bale joined Kane, the center of the scorer who missed Dele Alli and on the rebound Bale crashed it into the crossbar … Amazing! What a waste of not only the tie but an exceptional play.
And about the end West Ham was saved again when Son’s attempt crashed into the post … who can say that the ‘Spurs’ didn’t try!
The blows forced him to play beyond the 90s but it was no longer enough time for a Tottenham that fought, that had to tie, but did not succeed and was left empty-handed and increasingly away from the prominence that was expected of an erratic team, which paid off for its bad start.