Home setback against Hammers

We tasted defeat at our new stadium for the first time on Saturday afternoon as West Ham United took the points in a lively London derby.

There was only one goal in the game, scored by Michail Antonio in the 67th minute, but both sides created plenty of chances throughout the game, although ours weren’t as clear-cut as the visitors', who could have won by a bigger margin were it not for some good saves in the second half from Hugo Lloris when the game was getting stretched.

At the other end, Lukasz Fabianski kept out first-half efforts from Heung-Min Son and Christian Eriksen, while we almost snatched a point right at the end, only for substitute Vincent Janssen’s far post effort to be cleared off the line by Fabian Balbuena.

There was a good early tempo to the game in the opening stages, both sides looking to play attacking football and early chances saw Declan Rice and Son fire long-rangers over at either end. We opened the Hammers up on 11 minutes when Lucas Moura found Dele on half-way, he threaded a lovely ball to put Son in the clear down the left channel and the South Korean forward went for the near post, but Fabianski was equal to his effort. At the other end, Lloris needed to push away Ryan Fredericks’ 25-yard drive six minutes later, before Felipe Anderson broke clear down our left flank and drove into the area but shot tamely at goal.

The possession was mostly in our favour, Lucas firing wide from 22 yards on 25 minutes as we looked for the opener and we went close again nine minutes before the break as Son blocked a West Ham clearance on another attack, with the ball falling kindly to Eriksen on the angle of the six-yard box but Fabianski was quickly out to smother his shot. Most of the efforts on goal were from distance, Juan Foyth fizzing a long-range shot wide while at the other end, Anderson’s drive on the stroke of half-time flicked off Toby Alderweireld and almost wrong-footed Lloris, but he re-adjusted himself and was able to gather the ball.

As it has been in four of our five games at the new stadium this season, it was goalless at half-time and it needed a good block from Alderweireld to keep it that way two minutes after the restart, as a shot from our former full-back Fredericks cannoned off him and over the bar. Marko Arnautovic then drove straight at Lloris as the visitors opened the half brightly.

The game really started to open up with both sides having good attacking opportunities without making the best of them, the final pass on so many occasions not finding its intended target. But when Arnautovic picked up the ball out wide on the right, he certainly did find his target with an excellent pass in to Antonio in the area, the Hammers’ forward controlling the ball on his chest before volleying past Lloris from eight yards mid-way through the second half.

We continued to press forward and almost drew level when Dele’s neat ball found Ben Davies bursting into the area but Fredericks was across to block his shot, while the visitors continued to threaten on the counter, Lloris making an excellent save from Antonio on one such breakaway. And we were indebted to our skipper again four minutes from time when Issa Diop broke from inside his own half, rode two challenges and was through on goal, his low shot heading towards the bottom corner until Lloris dived to tip it around the post.

There was one final chance for us in the dying seconds of stoppage time when Foyth produced a fine burst down the right and delivered a cross to the far post which was met by Janssen and his effort was going in, but for the goal-line intervention of Balbuena.

Key moment

The winning goal from Antonio proved to be decisive in terms of the points, but Balbuena’s clearance in the final minute was the key moment which denied us a share of the spoils.

It was an excellent run by Foyth to create the chance and it looked like Janssen was going to save the day, but instead it was the Hammers’ centre-half who did the saving.

Mauricio's view

Manager Mauricio Pochettino said: "I'm happy with the effort. The performance in the second half wasn't the performance we'd expect but you know, it's difficult because we came from a very busy period of competing, a lot of circumstances with the team again and, yes, it can happen. We at least deserved a draw but in football sometimes it happens that you can lose and we need to accept that and move on.

"We created a lot of chances to be in front and manage the game in a different way but when you don't score, always you can give the opponents some space and in the second half we didn't manage the ball properly and we conceded a lot of space for them to run - players like Arnautovic or Michail Antonio can create problems for you and in one action, they scored. We're disappointed but we need to move on."

Reaction on Spurs TV

Match data

Goal: West Ham – Antonio 67.

Yellow cards: West Ham - Snodgrass, Fredericks.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Gusty winds, light clouds, 12 degrees.

Attendance: 60,043.