West Ham United condemned themselves to a 13th defeat of the campaign on Sunday evening as David Moyes’ side struggled to contend with Spurs.
A 2-0 defeat was the prize for their trip across London in a clash that rather summed up their sorry season so far.
Jarrod Bowen was presented with a golden opportunity to open the scoring within the opening minute of the game but got the chance all wrong.
In truth, that was their best opening of the entire match, a fact that was hardly a surprise with Michail Antonio leading the line.
How did Antonio perform against Spurs?
This has been an abject campaign for the West Ham striker and one that hardly backs up the fact that he’s the Hammers’ record scorer in the Premier League.
The 32-year-old has 58 top-flight goals to his name but only two of those have come this term, a barren run that now stretches back to the beginning of October.
Whether his lack of goals is purely down to him is up for debate, though, with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink claiming in Sky’s post-match analysis that he was so lonely he was essentially standing on “an island” throughout his time on the pitch.
It is correct to suggest that Antonio is starved of service, with West Ham registering just one shot on target against Spurs, but he is hardly putting himself about.
The Jamaica international made just eight passes before he was dragged off for new signing Danny Ings on 72 minutes.
It would not be a surprise if Ings is now afforded a run in the team with Antonio clearly past his best and in need of being ditched from the starting XI.
He didn’t have a single shot at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, registered no dribbles and was successful in only four of his 11 ground duels.
For such a robust character, that was uncharacteristic but a damning indictment of his lack of influence on the Irons frontline.
Antonio also made three fouls and gave possession away 13 times, once every 2.2 touches.
In the words of Football.London’s Jonty Colman, it was a ‘quiet‘ outing for the attacker, but one that must see his run in the team come to an end.
