West Ham outlined their top-four credentials with a 2-1 win over an unravelling Tottenham, who lost for the fifth time in six Premier League games to leave Jose Mourinho feeling the pressure.
The Hammers climbed into fourth position thanks to goals from Michail Antonio and Jesse Lingard, giving them their highest ever points tally at this stage of the season in the Premier League era.
They are nine points above their London rivals and David Moyes celebrated his first win over Mourinho at the 16th time of asking after withstanding a late assault by Spurs, who gave themselves hope through Lucas Moura.
It was a defensive error that led to the opening goal, when Jarrod Bowen was allowed too much space on the left and he curled in a delicious ball that left the Spurs all at sea.
Eric Dier chose not to clear it and Hugo Lloris opted not to claim it, allowing Antonio to stab the ball goalwards. Lloris saved with his legs but the rebound fell straight to the Hammers striker who poked in.
It was some more slapdash defending that actually led to a great chance to equalise.
Pablo Fornals ran unchallenged into the penalty area, but his cross was cleared to Erik Lamela, who rode several tackles and carried the ball 40 yards before playing in Harry Kane, but the England captain was unusually wasteful as he skewed his effort off target.
Lloris had to make a good save to tip over Craig Dawson’s header from a corner as the central pairing of Davinson Sanchez and Dier never looked in control.
But it was Spurs that ended the first half pressing for the leveller as Lukasz Fabianski made two good saves.
First he kept out Lamela’s 20-yard effort before producing a much better stop to deny Kane’s low shot in added time.
Mourinho threw Gareth Bale on at half-time but within two minutes of the restart they were 2-0 down.
Some more shoddy defending saw Lingard surge through on goal and he fired into the bottom corner. The linesman immediately flagged for offside but VAR overruled the decision and the goal stood.
Spurs had a mountain to climb but they at least made a start when Moura headed in Bale’s corner for his first Premier League goal since September.
However Spurs hit the woodwork twice in the final 15 minutes as they searched for a leveller, confirming that it was to be West Ham’s day.
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