West Ham United became the first club to inflict a defeat to Spurs inside their new home ground and with that, the Lilywhites’ top-four future still hangs in the balance.
Michail Antonio became the first player to score an away goal at the new Spurs stadium and this strike was enough to ensure all three points for Manuel Pellegrini’s men.
Pochettino’s men failed to come up with an answer after they went behind in the 67th minute and pundit Ian Wright has now revealed why Spurs struggled so much.
Wright while talking during the BBC Match of the Day, claimed that the North London club lacked width during the match, which was a key reason why the likes of Eriksen and Dele Alli failed to score on Saturday.
“They did lack a bit of width today, and I think they played into West Ham’s hands, but Diop did play well,” said Wright.
“There were a few instances when Spurs could have stretched West Ham, opened them up, but they didn’t do it.”
“They brought Llorente on, so you’re thinking they might get crosses into the big man, you could see where the space is, but again they don’t quite get it worked out there. West Ham were very, very strong and they snuffed them out at every opportunity,”
West Ham defended resolutely during the first half of the match and from the very first minute, it was evident that Pellegrini had set up his team to play counter-attacking football.
And while it was a near flawless performance from the Hammers but they could have easily scored a couple of more goals especially when Pochettino decided to throw in the kitchen sink after Spurs went behind.
Next up, Spurs welcome Ajax in the Champions League semi-finals and this will surely be another big test for Pochettino and his players given that Ajax have already knocked out the likes of Real Madrid and Juventus.
West Ham though do not have any European commitment which means their next game will be against Southampton at the London stadium on Saturday.
