Spoils shared at the London Stadium - on-the-whistle report

Our unbeaten start to the season continued at the London Stadium on Wednesday evening as we shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw with West Ham United.

We took the lead through a Thilo Kehrer own goal in the opening period, but were pegged back 10 minutes into the second half when Tomas Soucek fired home for the Hammers and, despite chances for both sides, no-one could force a winner.

The hosts had the first chance on seven minutes, Pablo Fornals bringing out a save from Hugo Lloris – 10 years to the day since he joined us - before we thought we had a penalty. Harry Kane’s header appeared to hit Aaron Cresswell’s arm, which was away from his body and referee Peter Bankes immediately pointed to the spot. But, after a four-and-a-half minute VAR check, during which Bankes went to check the pitchside monitor, it was decided the ball hit Cresswell’s head first and then his arm and the decision was overturned.

That lifted the home crowd and the Hammers had another couple of chances, Lloris saving from Declan Rice before Michail Antonio struck the outside of the post with a curling effort. Our opener in the 34th minute came with West Ham on the attack as well, Eric Dier intercepting the ball inside our area and threading it to Kane to launch a counter. He found Dejan Kulusevski who advanced down the right and found Kane on an overlapping run, his low cross poked into his own net by Kehrer, with Heung-Min Son waiting to pounce. Said Benrahma hit a deflected shot straight at Lloris shortly after, but we managed the rest of the half well, taking the sting out of the atmosphere to lead at half-time.

That changed 10 minutes after the interval though, as the Hammers levelled, Antonio flicking the ball into the path of Soucek and he beat Lloris at his near post with a half-volley from 10 yards out. Then, 12 minutes later, we almost got caught playing out from the back but Jarrod Bowen skewed wide on the stretch from close range.

Chances came and went at either end, Son’s curling effort flicking off Rice and just going over while Fornals should have done better when the ball fell to him 12 yards out, but he blazed over. In the 89th minute, Vladimir Coufal cut a cross back into the danger zone which landed perfectly for either Emerson or Lucas Paqueta to fire home, but they both left the ball to each other and the threat was gone. And when Bowen stretched to send the ball spinning across our goal-line in added time, there was no-one on hand to add the final touch.

'We had the game under control'

Head Coach Antonio Conte told SPURSPLAY: "For the game, for the situation we created, maybe there is a bit of disappointment about the final result. We scored, we had the game under control, then we conceded a stupid goal, honestly. I believe the team was really good to defend set-pieces, corners and throw-ins because we worked a lot on this aspect, we knew well the capacity of West Ham to exploit this situation. Also, the players know very well, and I love to repeat, always, that at the high level, the details move the final result. You can defend well for 95 minutes but in 30 seconds, if you don’t pay attention, then the opponent punishes you, and that happened tonight."

Reaction on SPURSPLAY

Match data

Goals: West Ham – Soucek 55; Spurs – Kehrer (OG) 34.

Yellow cards: West Ham – Paqueta, Emerson; Spurs – Bissouma, Sanchez, Davies, Richarlison, Perisic.

Referee: Peter Bankes.

Venue: London Stadium.

Weather: Partly cloudy, moderate breeze, 20 degrees.