Tottenham Hotspur moved into the Premier League’s top four as they returned to form with a 2-0 home win over West Ham United that left their London rivals in the bottom three on Sunday.
There was little to separate the sides in a forgettable first half but Spurs stepped up the pace after the interval with goals by Emerson Royal and substitute Son Heung-min.
It was a big win for Tottenham following defeat at Leicester City and a midweek loss away to AC Milan in the Champions League and allowed them to leapfrog Newcastle United in the table.
Right back Emerson marked his 50th Premier League game by opening the scoring in the 56th minute from a Ben Davies pass.
Son, who has struggled for form this season and was left out of the starting lineup by Spurs’ stand-in manager Cristian Stellini, then linked with Harry Kane to double the advantage.
West Ham had started the derby brightly with Jarrod Bowen wasting an early chance but offered little and have now won only once in their last 11 league games with pressure mounting on manager David Moyes.
Tottenham have 42 points from 24 games, one more than Newcastle who have a game in hand. West Ham are in 18th with 20 points from 23 matches, a point below the safety zone.
