Player ratings as Spurs land big win over West Ham in race for the top four

Tottenham 3-1 West Ham (Zouma og 9′, Son 24′, 88′; Benrahma 35′)

Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte says his side’s only target is to qualify for the Champions League after a vital win over West Ham.

Kurt Zouma’s early own goal followed by a Son Heung-min brace earned Spurs the London derby spoils to move them up to fifth, three points behind Arsenal.

The Gunners have a game in hand but still have to visit their north London rivals in a game which is increasingly looking like becoming a shootout for the top four.

Conte says that has to be the sole focus going into the final nine games.

“Now in our dressing room there is only one target in our mind,” Conte said. “I wanted this to happen because it’s right if you want to try to improve the mentality it is right to start under pressure and it has to be positive pressure for us.

“For this reason I wanted to make this target, the race for fourth place.

“We know very well the difficulty to reach this target but it’s right to start because Tottenham needs to have the ambition to play in the best competition.

“I know very well that in England it is not simple because I always say that in this moment there are four teams that are very, very top in my opinion – City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool – but if one of these four teams has a struggle, this season it happened with United then we have to try to stay there.

“We know that there is Arsenal that has taken advantage in the table and they’re showing great stability and then there is also West Ham and United but we want to try to fight to have this target.

“The only way to put pressure on Arsenal is to get three points, to win.

“There are nine games to go and for us every game has to be a final and in this moment for sure they have a good advantage, also especially because they’re working with the same coach for many years and they have many transfer markets with the same coach.

“Maybe they are in this moment more ready than us but in five months we did a fantastic job with these players and now I think that we reduced the gap with many teams in England.”

West Ham’s historic week ended in disappointment but boss David Moyes was not too disappointed, describing a visit to Tottenham the worst possible fixture to come after 120 minutes of Europa League action on Thursday.

Defeat, which came despite Said Benrahma’s first-half goal, is a big blow to their own top four hopes, which Moyes concedes have probably ended.

But he says that should not be the narrative.