Well. That was definitely a football match. Tottenham Hotspur traveled to West Ham to face David Moyes and new signing Lucas Paqueta. Spurs went up in the first half thanks to an own goal from Thilo Kehrer, but Tomas Soucek leveled the score just after halftime and looked the fresher of the two sides throughout the second half. Spurs managed to hang on for a 1-1 draw in what was a really disappointing performance overall, especially with matches now coming once every three games until December.

I’ll be honest, my match reactions are going to be somewhat cursory and basic because this was a midweek match that kicked off at 2:45 p.m. ET and the day job always comes first. I really only quarter-watched this and not with any sort of superhuman focus. I’ll be watching the match again tonight and will hopefully have some more things to say in the player ratings down the line, but for now, consider this an open thread for you to talk about your takeaways from the match. Which is what you do anyway, so I have no idea why you care that much about MY opinions.

But for what it’s worth, here they are.

Match Observations

• I hate playing West Ham so much.
• Yet another unconvincing result, but this match was quite clearly the worst Spurs have played all season. In a vacuum, an away draw at West Ham isn’t bad, but Spurs just have not looked… good. That’s troubling.
• The right side of Tottenham’s attack was A Problem™ again today. West Ham knew it too because that’s where they tried to force Spurs to play out of the entire match. That was the real problem — Spurs couldn’t get anything going through the flanks, and again had nobody in midfield who can pass.
• The reversed penalty was another example of how nobody in England knows what a handball is or how it should be called. The call was that because it glanced off Cresswell’s face and hit the arm, that overrules the fact that his arm was in an unnatural position. That was probably the right decision based on the rules, but the problem is the rules are (still) really dumb. Pretty sure nobody in the stands knew exactly why that was reversed.
• Beautiful setup in the first half for Spurs’ goal, even if the goal itself was pretty ugly. Kulusevski’s little pass in the box in the end was lovely, and Sonny would’ve gotten an easy tap-in if Kehrer hadn’t put it in himself. Loved Kane rounding behind Deki to receive the pass, too.
• Yves Bissouma was pretty poor today, especially in the first half. Not sure if it’s COVID, or still learning The Patterns™, or what, but he’s looked pretty loose in possession. That said, he covers a lot of ground, so hopefully he just needs time.
• The Streak™ is over, is it okay for me to criticize Davinson Sanchez now?
• No idea how that tackle that injured Hojbjerg wasn’t a card; it wasn’t even called a foul! I can’t believe General Ho got up and walked after that, looked seriously injured at first. He was clearly hobbled in the second half.
• Dejan Kulusevski is absurd. That’s it. That’s the bullet.
• West Ham’s equalizer was just bad defending all around. Can’t blame anyone in particular, CAN blame everyone equally.
• Richarlison was great! Super impactful and active right from the jump. Wish he had come on 15 minutes earlier than he did. Spurs were begging for an energy sub and didn’t get one. Maddening from Conte. We made seven new first team signings this summer and Conte still hates his bench.
• Really really curious to see what Conte does heading into the next match vs. Fulham.
• xG in this match was WHU 1.33 – 0.63 TOT. Feels about right.