Three things learned in West Ham 3-1 loss v Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham suffered a 3-1 defeat against Spurs this afternoon (March 20) in a bitterly contested game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Said Benrahma’s first half goal wasn’t enough to get anything from the game with Kurt Zouma finding his own net and a Son Heung-min brace leading the Hammers’ north London rivals to victory.
David Moyes’ side now find themselves in seventh in the Premier League, six points off Arsenal who sit in the lucrative fourth spot.
Here are three things we at West Ham Zone learned from the game…
Europa taking its toll
The first half performance from the Hammers was lacklustre to say the least. Many thought the toll the Europa League would have on this squad, given its size and strength, would be too much for West Ham and have a massive impact on their league form.
It has had some effect but nowhere near what was expected but now the cracks are beginning to show and understandably so. The Irons are coming to the end of a season like no other, having played so many games so a dip in performance after playing 120 very intense minutes of football on Thursday is forgivable.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t become a recurring thing from now until the end of the season.
Top four is done
The Spurs loss looks to have all but sealed West Ham’s fate. They now sit seventh having played more games than the teams they are competing with. Arsenal, Manchester United and today’s opponents Tottenham all have better chances of notching that final Champions League spot and there isn’t anything Moyes’ side can do about it now.
With the resources they have at their disposal, they really should be beating the Hammers in the race, but they will be devastated to miss out.
Next season the boss needs to target the head-to-head games against the top six as a massive area for improvement with that being the decisive factor in missing out on Champions League football via the Premier League.
Go for Europa League
Despite the Irons Champions League hopes being as good as done domestically, they still have the Europa League. The loss against Spurs should have made Moyes realise this is now the Hammers number one target.
It would be a magnificent achievement if they could go all the way and win the competition and the round of 16 win against the most successful team in the competition’s history will fill the Irons with confidence, they can cause an upset.
It is their last hope of achieving one of their major targets for the season and every last employee of the club has to give everything in order to achieve it.
In other West Ham news, Alan Smith wowed by one Irons man in the first half v Tottenham Hotspur
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