Stunners from Pedro Obiang and Heung-min Son light up Wembley as Tottenham and West Ham settle for draw

Tottenham Hotspur 1 West Ham United 1: Spurs dominated for long period only to fall behind

It was a case of 'anything you can do' for Son and Spurs (Getty)

Tottenham Hotspur may have thought they were used to Wembley frustration by now, but this was a level beyond anything seen this season. All year Spurs have been dominating visitors here, hoarding possession, playing in their half, battering them with crosses and shots. Far too often they have not turned this superiority into goals and points. But no game here – and certainly no draw – has been quite as one-sided as this.

The 1-1s with Burnley and West Bromwich Albion, or the 0-0 with Swansea City, set a standard of exasperation. But this one managed to break it: Tottenham had 71 per cent possession and 31 shots to West Ham’s three.

And yet the score finished 1-1, Heung Min-Son only finding Spurs’ equaliser with six minutes left on the clock. Before then, frustration had turned to disbelief when Pedro Obiang gave West Ham the lead with literally their first shot of the game, on 70 minutes. It was a 30-yarder into the top corner, a speculative Hail Mary that came off, and no goal in 2018 will be more at odds with the run of play than this one.

Obiang scored a thunderbolt to open the scoring (Reuters)

It must be said that West Ham were not completely passive in all of this. If we live in a new era of defensive football in the Premier League, the smaller teams finding a way to shut out the bigger ones, this was another masterclass from David Moyes. After beating Chelsea and getting a point against Arsenal this was a more extreme example of the same thing, his compact 5-4-1 sitting inside their own half, simply not letting Spurs through. It was all the more impressive because it came just 48 hours after their own tiring added-time win over West Brom.

Yes, Spurs played on Tuesday night too, but they have a better squad, and brought in Harry Kane as one of their three changes. Too often they could not pick through West Ham. Eric Dier and Moussa Sissoko were short of ideas in midfield while Harry Winks stayed on the bench, still being protected because his ankle is not quite right yet.

Pedro Obiang opened the scoring with a stunning long-range strike (Getty)

It was clear from the very first minutes what the pattern of the game of would be. Spurs defended on the half-way line, went forward, and came up against a penalty box full of claret and blue shirts. Javier Hernandez was often the only West Ham player not within 20 yards of his own goal. Davinson Sanchez, Kane and Christian Eriksen all had shots blocked from good positions, so Spurs started shooting from distance: Kane forced a good save from Adrian from 20 yards, Eric Dier flayed one miles over, Eriksen’s took a deflection, forcing a save.

The second half did not start any differently. Spurs continued to push but there is only so much you can do against a defence like this. Angelo Ogbonna blocked from Son, Winston Reid blocked from Eriksen, Pablo Zabaleta blocked from Kane.

Alli's header was one of Spurs' best chances (Getty)

And then, with no build-up or warning whatsoever, West Ham scored. They had genuinely not mounted one serious attack until, with 20 minutes left, Pedro Obiang found himself in space 30 yards from goal. With no obvious options on, he decided to hit it as hard as he could towards the top corner. It was a one in a million shot, flying past Hugo Lloris and in.

Spurs looked devastated but kept pushing. They threw on Victor Wanyama and Erik Lamela and then Fernando Llorente. There were more corners, more blocks and more balls into the box. Until they finally got level with a goal almost as spectacular as the one they conceded.

Kane and Alli couldn't find a way past the West Ham defence (PA)

West Ham dropped so deep they were effectively defending with a back seven along the line of their own box. Son had the ball 25 yards out and, understandably tired of passing, he drove it into the top corner before Adrian could get across to save. The last 10 minutes were even more of a siege, a barrage of blocked shots, but true to the pattern of the night, there was no simple route to goal. Spurs were left with one of their bitterest points of the season.

Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Aurier, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Davies; Sissoko, Dier; Eriksen, Alli, Son; Kane

West Ham (5-4-1): Adrian; Zabaleta, Reid, Ogbonna, Rice, Masuaku; Kouyate, Obiang, Noble, Lanzini; Hernandez