Never go full Tottenham
At 72 minutes gone, with Tottenham 3-0 up, it felt like the perfect time to give Gareth Bale his second Tottenham debut. As it turned out, it would be the moment the game was flipped on his head, and the beginning of West Ham's spectacular comeback in a game that seemed dead and buried after 20 minutes.
Heung-min Son's goal after 45 seconds set the tone. Harry Kane doubled the home side's lead after eight minutes, nutmegging Declan Rice before lashing the ball through a wall of bodies past a helpless Lukasz Fabianski. Kane then headed in a third before a quarter of an hour had passed. West Ham feared the worst.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1317853549032841218
"This is going to get ugly," was the tone of the timeline.
But as West Ham switched into gear, the chances stopped coming with such regularity and ease for Tottenham. In the 82nd minute, Fabian Balbuena nodded in what was presumed to be a consolation goal for the Hammers. Davinson Sanchez then diverted one into his own net while defending a cross. Flashbacks to last season, when Spurs allowed West Ham to within a goal of stealing a point having gone 3-0 up entered everyone's mind. But this game wasn't quite finished.
Bale had a chance to make it 4-2 in the 92nd minute but would come to rue a missed chance just moments later.
Substitute Manuel Lanzini took full advantage as Harry Winks, attempting to clear danger from a corner, took a heavy touch, setting the ball up perfectly for the Argentine to arrow into the top corner via Hugo Lloris' fingertips, the bar, and the post.
https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1317880630143758339
It was the sort of performance that will concern José Mourinho, privately if not publicly. This is the sort of collapse Mauricio Pochettino had worked too hard to eradicate from the Spurs psyche and Mourinho emphasised cannot happen, as demonstrated in the All or Nothing documentary, in slightly more fruity language.
Football, bloody hell.
