Tomas Soucek salvages draw for West Ham to slow Tottenham’s momentum

The margins are usually tight whenever these two clubs showdown and it was Antonio Conte who was grateful for a point in the end after Tomas Soucek’s second-half strike canceled out Thilo Kehrer’s own goal for a resurgent West Ham. It could have been even better had the new £50m signing Lucas Paquetá or Jarrod Bowen finished off chances in the dying minutes but this was much more like the kind of performance we have come to expect from West Ham under David Moyes. For Tottenham, there was relief that they are still unbeaten after five matches but Conte will know that they must improve after a display that showed they are far from the finished article just yet.

Moyes had been full of praise for Conte in the buildup to the meeting of these two London rivals, admitting that he admires the Italian “because it’s not about style – he is only interested in winning.” With the Tottenham manager sticking to his tried and tested 3-4-3 formation for the short trip to east London and West Ham lining up with four at the back, a clash of approaches was at least guaranteed.

Sadly for Moyes, he had to make do without the new £30m striker Gianluca Scamacca due to illness, with Paquetá, who was paraded on the pitch before kick-off, among the substitutes – along with two reserve goalkeepers.

Spurs were unchanged from their no-frills victory over Nottingham Forest at the weekend apart from Yves Bissouma being handed his first Premier League start since arriving from Brighton having made four previous appearances off the bench. The Mali midfielder found himself straight into the action as West Ham – buoyed by their first win of the season against Aston Villa on Sunday – went on the attack. Pablo Fornals forced Hugo Lloris into the first save