David Moyes admits West Ham United struggled to deal with an ‘unbelievable’ Tottenham Hotspur attack after Harry Kane and Heung Min-Son combined to seal a vital Premier League win, speaking to Football London.
As Declan Rice and co celebrated long into the night on Thursday, toasting that iconic Europa League victory over Sevilla in delirious fashion, their 3-1, blurry-eyed defeat away from home at bitter rivals Spurs three days later was the very definition of a sporting hangover.
Kurt Zouma, colossal against Sevilla, scored an own goal just nine minutes in. It was 2-0 inside half an hour.
And, after Said Benrahma’s well-taken volley had halved the deficit, Kane and Son did what Kane and Son do best – better than anyone else in Premier League history in fact – the former setting up the latter for the second time in the game with another inch-perfect through ball.
“The level of the Tottenham front players was such an unbelievably high level,” Moyes sighs after a defeat which leaves West Ham three points adrift of their London neighbours, having played a game more.
“I watched them here against Everton (a 5-0 win two weeks ago) and it was very similar. Without much of the ball, Tottenham were a couple of goals up and it is similar to today. We had the ball for the opening 15 minutes or so but they were two goals up.
“(Stopping Spurs is) incredibly difficult because Harry Kane is a world-class player.
Can Tottenham qualify for the Champions League?
“I think Tottenham were a big, big threat on the counter-attack,” Moyes adds to the club’s official website. “When we gave the ball away, they became a big threat.
“I thought Harry Kane was exceptional with the way he played. We found it difficult trying to deal with him.”
Having won just three of their last nine domestic games, winning the Europa League now seems to be West Ham’s most likely route into the Champions’ League group-stages.
Then again, while Lyon in the quarter-finals feels like a very ‘winnable’ tie, Barcelona in the semis certainly does not.
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