Today I'm going back five years to 2017 and Tottenham's first ever visit to what is now referred to as the London Stadium but, as evidenced by West Ham's jersey that season, was also called the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The match was my own first visit to the home of the 2012 London Olympics as I recompleted the 92 for the umpteenth time, part of an attendance of 56,992.
I have talked previously about West Ham's move to the London Stadium which I consider to have been pivotal in catapulting the Hammers into the upper echelons of the top flight. The move has never been popular with Hammers fans however which is understandable when you visit their new home. As a former athletics stadium, the stands are set well back from the pitch and there are appalling sight lines from the seats behind the two goals in particular. That said, the stadium has a 60,000 capacity and the corresponding jump in matchday revenues enjoyed by the club has played a key part in galvanising the club. The West Ham hierarchy have made plenty of effort to make their new venue feel more like home but, to Hammers fans, it will never be regarded with the affection reserved for the old place, the Boleyn Ground at Upton Park. In particular, it is impossible to escape the playing of the club dirge, churned out at every opportunity whilst automated bubble blowing machines do their thing. "I'm forever blowing bubbles"? Sadly it's true!
The programme cover star is, of course, West Ham's Kiwi defender Winston Reid. Both of Reid's parents have Maori ancestry but, at the age of ten, Reid moved with his mother and Danish step-father to Denmark where he would go on to establish his early football career playing for Midtjylland in the Danish Superliga. In 2010 Reid was transferred to West Ham where he would go on to make 222 appearances for the club, scoring 10 goals. After struggling terribly with injuries in the latter part of his stay at West Ham, Reid left the Hammers in 2021 after 12 seasons with the club. Reid opted to represent New Zealand over Denmark and in total collected 30 international caps scoring one goal, that against Slovakia at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The featured game, played on a Friday evening was a very tense affair with Tottenham not yet out of the running for the title itself. Now there's nothing that West Ham like more than to poop the party of one of their London rivals and, seemingly, Tottenham in particular and they attacked Spurs with some relish looking very dangerous. Spurs had their own chances too but they certainly didn't look like title contenders that night. Goalkeeper Adrian was in inspired form as was Manuel Lanzini who scored the only goal of the game in the 65th minute. It was a night where Tottenham threw their title aspirations away or, as the Hammers fans sang: "It's happening again".
Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham ended the season with their best ever Premier League finish of second but, to coin a phrase, second is nowhere and no Spurs fans were happy with the runners up spot behind Antonia Conte's Chelsea that season. Automatic qualification for the Champions League was some consolation however and at least they hadn't come third "in a two horse race" as they had done the previous season when Leicester took the title and Arsenal eventually finished second. The Hammers, managed by Slaven Bilic, finished the season in a comfortable mid table eleventh spot.
CRB Match No. 2154
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