Spurs Dominate Post Levy With Mounting Pressure On Potter | OneFootball

THERE IS no little irony in the fact that Tottenham began LAL – Life After Levy – with a crushing win over West Ham at the unloved London Stadium in Stratford, a place where the former Spurs chairman would have relocated to if one of his many controversial plans had come true.

He wanted to knock down the iconic stadium that was host for the 2012 London Olympics and build a state-of-the-art football stadium for Spurs in its place, much to the opposition of both Spurs AND West Ham fans. Well done for uniting those bitter enemies, Mr Chairman.

Spurs Starting Season Strong

Luckily for Spurs supporters, and unhappily for Hammers fans, Levy’s plans to move Tottenham,from their actual and spiritual home were scuppered by London politicians and the police, and Levy was forced to rebuild at White Hart Lane, with Mauricio Pochettino’s team spending a season and a half at Wembley while the billion-dollar Tottenham Hotspur stadium was finalised.

Now it is home to the world’s 10th richest club playing Champions League football, which was similar to the promise West Ham’s CEO Karren Brady made to the East End club’s long-suffering fans when they moved from their beloved Upton Park.

Now the only smiles you see as you leave this part of London are on the faces of opposition supporters and the middle-aged ladies visiting the virtual Abba show at the venue next door.

It was certainly a case of “The Winner Takes it All” for Thomas Frank on Saturday, after his side scored three times in 17 minutes early in the second half of a one-sided game, which prompted an exodus of unhappy Hammers to head for the exit doors with almost a third of the game remaining.

West Ham Woes

It was a similar story at West Ham’s previous home game, a 5-1 thrashing by Chelsea three weeks ago, with the stadium half-empty long before the end.

Fans voting with their feet is bad news for the board, who are under pressure after years of poor recruitment of players and coaches, the latest of whom, Graham Potter, cut a disconsolate figure at the final whistle.

This is the one game West Ham fans want to win more than any other, and they showed their disdain with several choruses of “Stand up if you hate Tottenham” during a feisty first-half in which West Ham more than held their own, though Cristian Romero was unlucky to have a header ruled out because a bout of WWE style grappling was said by referee Jarred Gillett to have cleared the way for the Spurs captain to power home his header.

Wrestling VAR

Refereeing supremo Howard Webb had vowed to crack down on wrestling during set-pieces, but guess what, grapple fans? The latest ref’s ruling has fizzled out already and each corner kick was accompanied by some serious wrestlemania.

Tomas Soucek took it one stage further in the 54th minute, ripping open Joao Palhinha’s stockings and almost cracking his shinpads with a cleats-up challenge that got him a straight red card from Gillett.

Spurs were already ahead at that point, Pape Matar Sarr hardly believing his luck that the Hammers chose to leave him unmarked at the back post for a corner.

Lucas Bergvall made it 2-0 with another smart header shortly after Soucek’s dismissal, the slightly-built Swedish youngster outmuscling two much bigger defenders to convert Romero’s forward pass.

And Bergvall, perhaps thinking of Abba’s “So You Win Again” made sure of all three points by setting up Micky Van de Ven to shoot home the third a complete a comfortable victory for Spurs.

Levy’s last signing

It was the perfect way for Xavi Simons, Levy’s last permanent signing, to make his debut, untroubled as he was by any aggressive tackling or meaningful marking from the hapless Hammers.

The young Dutchman has been brought in to fill the creative void left by injuries to James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski, the Swedish midfielder about whom Spurs fans chant “Gimme Gimme a Ginger from Sweden”, another Abba tribute.

Frank said he was satisfied with Simons’ debut, but knows there is a lot more to come.

For West Ham, there is more trouble ahead, with a fan protest promised for the next home game.

Unhappy Hammers, Happy Hotspurs. Life After Levy is up and running.