Tottenham 2-0 West Ham: Heung-min Son helps send Spurs into top four with London derby win

Son’s poor form this season saw him left out of the starting line-up for only the second time when fit, but he found the net four minutes after his introduction to add to the classy opener. Emerson Royal in the 56th minute.

It helped Spurs capitalize on Newcastle’s error against Liverpool by moving over the fourth-placed Magpies to aid the recovery of manager Antonio Conte, who remains in Italy after gallbladder surgery.

West Ham’s defeat ended their three-match unbeaten streak in the division and kept them in the bottom three.

The weekend’s results heightened the importance of this game and West Ham started out as a side keen to climb out of the relegation zone immediately after wins for Bournemouth and Everton dropped them to 18th place.

The visitors forced two corners in the opening rally after Jarrod Bowen fired wide inside 60 seconds.

It had also been an action-packed start for Spurs midfielder Oliver Skipp as he was booked just minutes after his volley was deflected by Tomas Soucek.

The notable pre-match news was that Son had only been dropped for the second time this season and his replacement, Richarlison, believed he had won a penalty for Tottenham in the 12th minute.

Thilo Kehrer managed under pressure from Richarlison but those appeals were dismissed by referee Michael Oliver and VAR.

As Tottenham began to gain a foothold midway through half-time, their final ball lacked quality and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s feeble 25-yard effort was all they had to show before Harry Kane and Richarlison went on. combine before the interval.

Kane fell deep and played a ball over his teammate, but Lukasz Fabianski was able to deny Richarlison’s weak effort with his feet to keep it 0-0 at halftime.

Spurs stayed on the front foot and Richarlison and Kane should have done better with chances early in the second half, the latter sending a horribly wide effort past Dejan Kulusevski’s pass.

Tottenham’s attacking trio were starting to warm up but when the breakthrough came with 56 minutes played they weren’t involved.

Hojbjerg unlocked West Ham’s stiff back-five with a sublime through ball for Ben Davies, who cut inside and helped fellow winger Emerson head home from 14 yards out.

Emerson was booed in last month’s loss to Aston Villa but continued his resurgence with a second goal in five league appearances.

West Ham could have equalized immediately when Michail Antonio passed to Bowen, but Fraser Forster saved well before Kulusevski tested Fabianski’s palms at the other end.

Spurs assistant Cristian Stellini introduced Son with 22 minutes remaining and he needed just four minutes to make his mark.

Kane played in the path of Son, who took the ball in his stride and passed Fabianski to score for the eighth time against West Ham.

As in the Leicester game in September, the South Korean and co-winner of the Premier League Golden Boot last season responded to the abandonment with a goal for his ninth effort of a difficult campaign.

Despite two dangerous efforts from Said Benrahma, Tottenham held on to end a poor week where they lost to Leicester and AC Milan in addition to boss Conte who was relegated to a rest period on a peak.