Mourinho on stunned Spurs: A team that scores three goals should not lose two points like we did

BLOWING BUBBLES: West Ham midfielder Manuel Lanzini celebrates after his spectacular injury-time strike earned an unlikely 3-3 draw at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Picture: Matt Dunham/Getty Images

Tottenham 3 West Ham 3

Talk about spoiling the homecoming party, as West Ham tore up the script written for Gareth Bale’s second coming and scored three times in the final 10 minutes to salvage an unlikely point.

Spurs had roared into a three-goal lead within 16 minutes of the start, and were cruising towards a victory that would have put them second in the Premier League when Bale was introduced as substitute in the 72nd minute.

It should have been a gentle run-out to close out a game in which Tottenham had dominated from the start and rarely looked in trouble, but it all went horribly wrong for them as the Hammers showed remarkable resilience to return from the dead.

Shortly after Jose Mourinho sent on Bale for his second Tottenham debut, having returned from seven years away at Real Madrid, David Moyes made a couple of changes of his own. Manuel Lanzini made the crucial difference, reinvigorating the West Ham attack, and they quickly reduced the arrears, with Fabian Balbuena scoring with an 82nd-minute header and then Davinson Sanchez scoring an own goal three minutes later. And with almost the last kick of the game, Lanzini hit a thundering drive in off the underside of the crossbar from 30 yards to snatch a draw that looked impossible when Heung Min Son and Harry Kane had put Spurs 3-0 ahead.

“There are things I need to analyse internally and discuss with the players, but I must give credit to West Ham,” said Mourinho afterwards.

“It is not easy to keep your belief when you are 3-0 down, but to lose those points was a big punishment for us.

“We were comfortable, in control, had this game in our pockets and we lost two points. We were not good enough or strong enough psychologically to cope in the last 10 minutes.

“A team that scores three goals should not lose two points like we did. I can’t say it was complacency and I cannot use fatigue as an excuse.”

Declan Rice, who was outstanding again for West Ham, said of the equaliser: “This is as good a feeling as you get in football. When we were 3-0 down and Bale came on to join Kane and Son, I thought let’s close it out, not concede any more goals. But once we got one, and then a second soon afterwards, we had 10 minutes to get an equaliser. And as soon as Manuel hit that shot I knew it was going in.”

Yet it had looked so different at the start, with Spurs looking determined to pick up where they left off, a 6-1 demolition of Manchester United at Old Trafford two weeks ago. They flew out of the traps and were three goals ahead in barely quarter of an hour.

“Spurs were on fire and I thought ‘here we go’ but the players responded really well and I was proud of them. They deserved that,” said Moyes.

Son and Kane linked up superbly again in a one-sided first half. Kane is a big fan of American football and Tom Brady in particular, and the England captain looked like the veteran quarterback when he dropped deep to collect the ball and pick out Son with a perfect 50 yard forward pass.

The Korean still had Hammers defender Balbuena ahead of him, but he simply dropped a shoulder, cut inside from the left and curled a powerful shot into the far corner of goal. 47 seconds had elapsed, West Ham were 1-0 down and seven minutes later it was two. This time Son set up Kane after a swift counter attack, though the big striker still had work to do. He made it look easy, though, as he nutmegged Declan Rice to create a shooting opportunity, and then drilled the ball powerfully home from 20 yards.

Kane scored again eight minutes later, heading home Sergio Reguilon’s delightful cross from the left following another flowing counter attack.

It looked like Spurs were going to run amok again, and certainly they had plenty of chances to increase their lead.

Lukasz Fabianski saved bravely at Son’s feet, and then dived full-length to keep out a drive from Kane, who also struck a post.

And even when West Ham got it back to 3-2, Kane released Bale to go through on goal but the Welshman inexplicably put it wide. And Spurs were made to pay when Lanzini hit his stunning equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

“It was world-class strike,” said Moyes.

No-one could disagree.

TOTTENHAM (4-3-3): Lloris 6; Aurier 7, Alderweireld 6, Sanchez 5, Reguilon 6; Sissoko 6 ,Hojbjerg 7, Ndombele 7 (Winks 72); Bergwijn 6 (Bale 72), Kane 8, Son 7 (Moura 80)

WEST HAM (4-3-3): Fabianski 6; Coufal 6, Balbuena 6, Ogbonna 6, Cresswell 7; Soucek 6, Rice 8, Masuaku 7 (Snodgrass 89); Bowen 7, Antonio 6 (Yarmolenko 77), Fornals 5 (Lanzini 77)

Referee: Paul Tierney