For the first time in the Premier League, Spurs have won their opening 3 fixtures in a row. Sunday afternoon, they captured another three points as Jermaine Defoe and Aaron Lennon saw to them winning 2-1 over Gianfranco Zola’s West Ham United. In the place of the injured Huerelho Gomes, Carlo Cudicini stepped in goal and Ledley King returned to the back line.
As both teams were yet to be beaten into the start of the new season, it was a very competitive match. However, to be such a match with chances on either end of the pitch, goals didn’t come until the second half when Charlton Cole fired one into Spurs’ net in the 48th minute. In the 53rd minute, West Ham’s goal scoring hero of the evening made a costly mistake as he passed back into his own box and straight to Jermaine Defoe; who kept his cool and slid one in. From there, Spurs found a second wind and were determined to add all three points to their tally. One of their golden opportunities was glanced just wide of the far post by Luka Modrić, who had several good chances during the game. Spurs finally took the lead with about 10 minutes to go of regular time through Aaron Lennon.
Harry beamed after the match, “Nine points out of nine is a great start for us. It was a difficult game but we showed a lot of character to come back from 1-0 down. We scored two good goals and even though we had a lot of help with the first one, it was a still a fantastic finish from Jermaine Defoe and Aaron Lennon scored a great second goal. I was pleased with the performance and pleased with the result. West Ham worked hard and there are no easy games. We knew it would be tough; they have a passionate crowd here that get behind the team. They caused us problems, Cole was a threat, they played Jimenez in behind and we’re very open, we play with two out wide and two up front, so teams are going to get opportunities against us because of the way we play, but we’ll get opportunities as well.”
When asked about breaking into the top four this season, Harry responded, “City will certainly be pushing to be a top four team, and there’s no reason we can’t push. We’ve got good players and there’s no reason why we can’t be up there having a go at it. We only lost one home game last season after I joined – to Everton (in October) – including all the cup games. We’ve won two away games already this year. If our home form stands up, we’ll be right up there.”
Spurs next play Birmingham on Saturday the 29th.
Jill Guthrie
