West Ham 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0: Manuel Lanzini deals Hammer blow to Spurs' Premier League title hopes
Before that Lanzini, set free by Andre Ayew, possibly in his best game for West Ham, had dragged a low shot wide and Bilic certainly appeared intent on exploiting the space this big pitch afforded when Kyle Walker – recalled in place of Kieran Trippier and appearing out-of-sorts amid the interest in him from Manchester City – constantly pushed forward.
West Ham 1-0 Tottenham: Manuel Lanzini goal shatters Spurs' title hopes
Player ratings
West Ham: Adrian (8), Fonte (7), Reid (7), Collins (7), Byram (7), Kouyate (7), Noble (7), Cresswell (7), Lanzini (8), Ayew (7), Calleri (7)
Subs: Snodgrass (NA), Fletcher (NA), Fernandes (NA)
Tottenham: Lloris (6),
Walker (4), Alderweireld (5), Vertonghen (5), Davies (5), Dier (6), Wanyama (6), Son (5), Eriksen (5), Alli (5), Kane (5)
Subs: Dembele (5), Janssen (5), Trippier (NA)
Man of the match: Manuel Lanzini
How do Spurs deal with the Kyle Walker enigma after woeful night?
How do Spurs deal with the Kyle Walker enigma after woeful West Ham display?
It all fits with the narrative. At the end of a week which has seen stories circulating from all quarters suggesting that he might be leaving Tottenham Hotspur for pastures richer/more likely to be filled with trophies, Kyle Walker had one of his worst games of the season.
Correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Put Walker's name into your social media portal of choice on Friday evening, and you will see assorted giddy types with Spurs players as their avatars and part of their usernames declaring him to be a shirker, a wantaway disgrace, and anyway it doesn't matter if he's leaving because he isn't any good anyway. But it doesn't definitively follow that, because stories have emerged linking Walker with a move, that this was the reason for a ropey night's work. These things happen, and the timing could simply be unfortunate.
Still, this was, to put things mildly, a rather eccentric performance by Walker. In the opening 20 minutes he pointlessly booted the ball into touch under minimal pressure, got booked for a spicy lunge on Manuel Lanzini, and generally looked like a man with other things on his mind. His passing was unpredictable, he went forwards when he should have gone back and back when he should've gone forwards.
There were a couple of superb balls in amongst the mediocrity, but this was at best an inconsistent evening. If a single performance was going to put anyone off paying north of £35million for a player, this was it.
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Let him leave: Tottenham fans react on Twitter to Kyle Walker's performance against West Ham
Manchester City fans react on Twitter to Kyle Walker display against West Ham