The avid Moyes admitted on Friday that the positivity with which back-to-back draws against Chelsea and Newcastle were greeted was a sign of the times at West Ham.
“Last year I was trying to win the games and not draw for sure,” Moyes said. “On both occasions, I thought they were good draws.
For 55 minutes here at Tottenham, a third in a row looked well within reach for the Hammers, but after frustrating a lackluster home side with relative ease as the game opened up, Moyes’ defense followed suit.
First, they were separated by the pass from Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg, who sent one winger, Ben Davies, to attack the other, Emerson Royal.
Then, seconds after Moyes sought to loosen the shackles with introductions from Danny Ings and Said Benrahma, the game was put to bed by the more familiar combination of Harry Kane and Heung-min Son.
The upshot is that despite visible signs of improvement in recent weeks, West Ham find themselves in the bottom three, a psychological concern for a side who, even amid their troubling pre-Christmas run, would have expected to clear by now. .
Celebrating their own team’s 2-0 victory, Tottenham fans sang with joy at the prospect of relegation, coining a couple of tunes to convey the same message: “West Ham are falling”.
There’s a long race to run and the relative optimism sparked by a four-game unbeaten streak shouldn’t be eroded by a defeat, especially not one here, but with many rivals at least temporarily resurgent, the encounter at Next weekend’s home with Nottingham Forest looks unmissable.
There Moyes will surely be plump for a more adventurous side having set out, understandably, to contain what looked like a conservative Tottenham XI.
Jarrod Bowen, playing in an unknown role on the left, had just two notable chances for the Irons, whipping just wide of Tomas Soucek in the opening two minutes and then denied by Fraser Forster from a tight angle following the Royal’s goal. . Between the two, West Ham’s most creative achievement was Declan Rice’s half-time change to white boots.
The plan was clearly to sit back, a flat back five denying Spurs’ front three space to operate in and throughout the first half when the hosts battled it worked. Harry Kane was allowed to pick up the ball deep, but couldn’t find his passes through the burgundy and blue forest. Dejan Kulusevski kept cutting inside and staring at the same overcrowded box. Richarlison was almost anonymous. Anything delivered in the penalty area was cleared with ease.
And so, having seemingly solved the problem, it would have been much to Moyes’ frustration if two barely potent full-backs combined for the opener, Angelo Ogbonna caught out of position as Hojbjerg converted an innocuous possession in the middle of pitch into a golden opportunity with a pass in the eye of the needle, a chance not wasted by Emerson when it finally fell in his way, the Brazilian calmly slipping past Lukasz Fabianski.
Moyes waited a quarter of an hour to twist, not turning to a bench for once brimming with attacking options until the 72nd minute. Even before he expired, Son, himself a substitute, had sealed the deal.
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