Tuesday night’s match at London Stadium saw Tottenham Hotspur get off to the ideal start in downpourous circumstances when Brendan Johnson gave Ange Postecoglou’s team the lead after five minutes.

After some excellent play, the ball found its way to Timo Werner, who tackled Vladimir Coufal and then slung the ball beyond the six-yard line. with only a few yards remaining to tap in with Brendan Johnson available.

Jarrod Bowen’s in-swinging corner found the unmarked Kurt Zouma, who rose highest and scored off his back, demonstrating the Lilywhites’ incapacity to defend set-pieces once again outperforming their excellent ball handling.

A crucial opportunity for Michael Antonio to put his team ahead was lost, and the game ended hurriedly. In a similar vein, Destiny Udogie missed a huge opportunity with only a few seconds remaining.

When the ball came to the Italian on the edge of the box, he had time to shoot, but he chose to shoot weakly and straight down Lukasz Fabianski’s throat.In East London, lost opportunities led to a sharing of the spoils.

These are the four lessons we took away from the London Derby.

                                              Michail Antonio is ‘all talk’

Richarlison, a striker for Tottenham, has been the target of frequent criticism from Antonio when they sit down for a podcast with Callum Wilson. But, the Jamaican player let himself down when it came to playing Spurs at the London Stadium.

If the West Ham striker had been wearing his shooting boots, all three points would have remained in East London.But Antonio missed a lot of good chances, and the points ended up being shared.

With 59 minutes remaining in the second half, Antonio had already given Guglielmo Vicario a howler after just two minutes of play. After a long pass by James Ward-Prowse, Antonio raced through on goal and outmuscled Vicario to go one-on-one. He also managed to go by Micky van de Ven.

He had all the time in the world to find the bottom corner with nobody around him, but instead he fired a poor shot straight at the Tottenham custodian, who easily made the save.

With only four goals this season, Antonio has had difficulty finding the back of the net despite having excellent hold-up play. West Ham obviously has to start looking into their possibilities in order to move for a new talisman during the transfer window if they want to take their game to the next level.

                         Brennan Johnson continues to improve

After being given a start by Ange Postecoglou at the London Stadium, Johnson ensured he lived up to the manager’s confidence in him by coming off the bench to ignite a comeback victory against Luton on Saturday.

Within five minutes of playing in the Premier League in 23/24, the Welshman had already scored five goals and provided seven assists.

It is only now that we are beginning to understand why he was signed for £50 million, making him the third most expensive signing in Tottenham’s history, after he traded Nottingham for London on Deadline Day during the summer transfer season.

Johnson’s impressive pace and striker instinct while in the penalty area are what fans in North London are seeing most often.He might end up with a stunning twenty direct goal contributions in what has been a fantastic breakthrough season if he can carry on his recent strong play, which has seen him score or assist in three of his previous four outings.

                                               Lack of depth costs Moyes

Despite his team’s team having had just over two days off between the loss at Newcastle United and the draw at home against Tottenham Hotspur, David Moyes made no substitutions on Tuesday night.
Moyes had a nearly fully fit squad at his disposal with Alphonse Areola, Edson Alvarez, and Nayef Aguerd being the only three out. The manager’s lack of action angered the supporters, who named an unchanged starting eleven and nine substitutes on the bench.

Danny Ings doesn’t seem to have much of a following, while Maxwel Cornet has just recently recovered from an injury.After a difficult start to his life in London, Kalvin Phillips, a Manchester City loanee, may have felt that the game was too hectic for Moyes. The same might be said of George Earthy and young Divin Muhammad. But in the coming weeks, the Hammers might pay a price for their incapacity to take initiative and make changes.

Nine players who were consistent contributors to the team the previous season were permitted to leave for fresh opportunities during both of this season’s transfer windows. The five acquisitions that were made in an attempt to replace the departures proved insufficient, and the lack of depth in the squad brought about by the ill-advised planning has been highlighted in recent weeks.

In order to attempt to close the gap between the big six and the remainder of the chasing group, the Hammers will need to have a successful summer transfer window. This includes adding some much-needed depth to help prevent a repeat of yesterday night’s events.

Who knows what would have happened if Moyes had changed things up and deployed his replacements against the Spurs.

Tottenham cannot defend set-pieces

 

This season, Spurs have surrendered from a set-piece 10 times, most recently in the 19th minute following Kurt Zouma’s equaliser.

With sixteen goals and just eight goals allowed, which was the third-lowest amount in the division, the Lilywhites were a formidable force from set plays the previous season. This is starting to get serious because the number of goals against from the previous season has already been surpassed.

Ange Postecoglou’s team will take a serious hit from Kurt Zouma’s goal off his back, as Brendan Johnson has said that it is “unacceptable” to give up from a set-piece in the manner that the Spurs did.

At the London Stadium, Spurs defended set pieces with a zonal marking system.But all evening, the arrangement was not perfect. On other occasions, Kurt Zouma was left untouched even after scoring. One of the more perplexing choices was to leave 5′ 7″ James Madison in place of 6′ 4″ Tomas Soucek.

Tottenham needs to work on their cornerback defence because they have consistently let them lose important points due to their superiority on the ball.