Tottenham 2-0 West Ham: Antonio Conte-less Spurs earn bragging rights in London derby

Back into the top four, with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min combining for goals, this is what they like to consider normal service resumed at Tottenham.

Son came off the bench to score within five minutes against West Ham, with a burst of pace and a touch to collect the pass threaded by Kane and a confident finish to beat Lukasz Fabianski.

It was only his second Premier League goal since September, when he came on as a substitute score three in a six-goal romp against Leicester.

This time, the Korean settled for one and shared the limelight with Emerson Royal, who scored the opening goal in a sweeping counter-attack featuring a most unlikely cast, with Ben Davies claiming the assist from wing back.

Together, the goals capped an emphatic second half display by Spurs, lifting them above Newcastle into fourth and making life a little easier for their absent boss Antonio Conte, watching from his home in Turin and preserving a perfect record for his assistant Cristian Stellini.

Tottenham assistant coach Cristian Stellini took charge of Spurs with head coach Antonio Conte watching on from Italy

It is now six wins out of six for Stellini when deputising for Conte, three wins here at Tottenham to go with three at Inter.

For West Ham, a bright start soon transformed into a miserable derby defeat, which leaves them stuck in the bottom three.

A first half low on goalmouth incident was mostly memorable for a sequence of sliding tackles by the ever-reckless Cristian Romero. Fortunately, for Spurs, his timing was impeccable, and the Argentina centre half came as close as anyone to finding the net. His powerful header from a corner flashed narrowly over.

Until then it has been hard work. West Ham made a bright opening and could have scored inside a minute when Tomas Soucek hooked a quickly taken throw square to Jarrod Bowen, in space outside the Tottenham penalty box.

Oliver Skipp got the nod to accompany Pierre Emile Hojbjerg in the centre of midfield, in the absence of Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissmoua, but neither of them were anywhere to be seen as Bowen crashed a drive wide.

It was an early concern for the hosts, with their depleted centre against the power of Soucek, Declan Rice and Flynn Downes, who was in for Lucas Paqueta.

The visitors converted their extra man in midfield into a short spell of pressure, forcing corners and mistakes, but Spurs grew into the game and were dominating by the time denied a strong penalty appeal.

Thilo Kehrer handled it. Crouching low to challenge Richarlison in a crowded penalty area he intercepted a pass aimed for Harry Kane with a strong left hand. There were echoes of the Soucek handball against Chelsea, although that deflected wide a shot on target and still wasn’t given. Again, West Ham got away with it.

Fabianski made his first save to keep out a long-range effort by Hojbjerg, late in the first half, and then saved from Richarlison and Romero beat Angelo Ogbonna in the air and headed over and Tottenham summoned greater threat after the half-time interval. 

Twice, they were through onto Fabianski in the early stages of the second half. First, Richarlison with a shot too close to the West Ham keeper. Then Dejan Kulusevski dispossessed Rice and released Kane, who dragged it wide from an angle. 

Son Heung-min made it two for Tottenham following a Harry Kane assist – despite only coming on in the second-half

 The 30-year-old forward started on the bench after a disappointing run of form – with Richarlison coming into the starting XI

The breakthrough came when Hojbjerg released Ben Davies, who found Royal unmarked to score first time, a goal that seemed to go to the Brazilian’s head.

With his first child on the way, he stuck the ball up his jersey in celebration and was soon performing a no-look pass and shimmying through his Brazilian party tricks, as the home crowd sang his name, right up until one ridiculous lunging tackle on Rice.

Luckily, it was so bad that he was nowhere near the West Ham captain and he recovered some of his composure by the time Son came on and scored the second.

In between the goals, Tottenham required a strong save from Fraser Forster when Bowen broke out onto a long ball touched on by Michail Antonio. It was just as vital as the goals and the clean sheet a boost for Forster.