It had to be West Ham old boy Jermaine Defoe who stuck the boot in at White Hart Lane, didn’t it? Defoe snatched a brace and Gareth Bale scored a scorcher. Andy Carroll scored his first goal for the claret and blues to try and adjust the scoreline but it was far too late, we weren’t going to salvage anything from this game.

It was a fiery derby in which some of the Hammer fans taunted the White Hart Lane outfit about the Rome stab fest the other day.

Tottenham now move up above the Hammers in the league table and were, dare i say it, the better side today. Only Andy Carroll’s header , which came far too late, was the only consolation the Hammers received this afternoon.

After the game in Rome early in the week, the Hammers thought they had their work cut out but they were oh so wrong. André Villas Boas’ outfit flew out of the starting blocks and pressured the irons from the get go and victory looked likely for the home side from the outset.

The hostile atmosphere in the stands transferred to the pitch where O’Brien was lucky to just get a booking for a dangerous late tackle on Bale.

Tottenham were up for the fight and both Defoe and Clint Dempsey fired in warning shots at Jussi. There was more trouble on the pitch and Defoe was booked for a rash tackle on West Ham’s Winston Reid. This was beginning to look like a Barca v Real Madrid game!

West Ham started to find their feet towards the half time whistle and captain fantastic Kevin Nolan, edged his way into the tottenham penalty area only to have his shot blocked by Sandro. Mark Noble was also booked for a silly tackle on Lennon and tempers were seen to be high on the two benches where Neil McDonald was seen to be involved in a spat with Jose Mario Rocha.

Tottenham’s first came courtesy of Defoe just before half time , who edged in from the right beating Winston Reid and George McCartney before taking on Noble and sending the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen.

After the break, West Ham felt ambitious but left the back exposed for Tottenham to capitalise on. Within minutes, Defoe was involved in the second goal which put Bale through to beat the Hammers’ keeper via a post.

Tottenham duly took control of the game and then came Defoe’s second of the match to make it 3 nil. Dempsey put the ball through to unleash the speed of Lennon who squared nicely for Defoe to tap in.

Late into the game came West ham’s consolation goal. Big Andy Carroll managed to turn in Joey O’Brien’s cross and get his first goal for West Ham. No doubt he would have liked the goal to be a decider or in different circumstances but the Hammers were well beaten today.

After the match Sam Allardyce had this to say:

“It looked like we didn’t recover from the first goal, which is disappointing because we still had a very good chance if we came out and played like we can. We were relying a lot on good defensive work and that let us down in the end.
“We launched a spirited comeback but it was far too late. It’s a bad day for me watching the lads play like they did. None of the players played their best and ended up being beaten comfortably.

This was a baptism of fire for West Ham and maybe a reality check. Tottenham now jump up above the lads and it hurts. The Hammers need to get it together and play like winners. We have a strong defense and a decent record in the Premier League so let’s not lose hope that we can finish in the top 5 or 6 this year. COYI