Even though Tottenham lost more points in the top-four race, Ange Postecoglou thought the team made progress with their 1-1 draw against West Ham.
Kurt Zouma’s goal negated Brennan Johnson’s opening goal, and a wild London derby ended in a draw.
The Spurs manager said, “I thought we controlled the game pretty well for the most part.”
They have a sizable and formidable squad. They impede your progress and sit deeply. They pose a threat with a counterattack, so you need to be extremely disciplined while maintaining a fairly calm demeanor.
“We gave up on one set-piece, but we handled the other set-pieces quite effectively. We lacked a little bit of mental clarity in the first third. But it’s just football; they’re human. It doesn’t work like that, although I would love to have a joystick and move them to where I want them. Occasionally, we underestimate how much time we have. At certain points, when we ought to have been in those areas, the ball was flashed across the box.
Everything is a part of the process of development. That is the rationale behind our system development and the existence of coaches. We understand that we are not the completed work.
The team is still moving in the right direction, in my opinion, based on what I saw tonight.
Within four minutes, Jarrod Bowen missed a simple chance to put West Ham ahead after Mohammed Kudus rolled the ball across goal.
When Tottenham wasted a carbon copy opportunity, with Timo Werner crossing for Johnson to sweep home, they found themselves behind in less than a minute.
In an odd move, Bowen swung in a corner to give the Hammers an equalizer in the nineteenth minute. When Zouma, who was unmarked, went up for a header and glanced the ball into the net off his back, Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was rooted to the spot.
After the half time, Michail Antonio had a wonderful opportunity to put West Ham ahead when he held off Micky van de Ven to go one-on-one with Vicario, but he fluffed his finish.
During stoppage time, Destiny Udogie had a chance to win it for the Spurs, but he shot straight at Lukasz Fabianski.
“We did a lot of good things and showed much more resilience in defence tonight, so it was probably fair in the end,” Hammers manager David Moyes stated.
“We had to perform well to stop a very good Tottenham team because we looked dangerous.”
After his team defeated Tottenham 2-1 in December, Moyes continued, saying, “In general, if you’re giving me four points off Spurs before the season started, I would have shook your hand, walked away, and said ‘thanks very much.”