PL: Son double against West Ham in 3-1 win sends Spurs fifth, above Man Utd

Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday beat local rivals West Ham 3-1 in the London derby, and strengthened their position race for a fourth place finish in the Premier League.

Spurs took an early lead in the derby in the ninth minute after former Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma scored an own goal, putting the away side behind.

Minutes later, West Ham suffered a scare when Heung-min Son latched on to a ball by January signing Dejan Kulusevski and hit a shot that struck the right-hand post.

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However, the away side found it difficult to survive the swift counter-attacks by Spurs, and conceded again in the 24th minute when Harry Kane played Son in on the left side of the West Ham penalty box, and the South Korean expertly evaded a challenge to smash the ball into the top right corner, albeit with a slight deflection from Zouma.

West Ham weren’t behind for too long, however, as Said Benrahma pulled a goal back for the visitors after volleying home from a corner in the 35th minute.

The match went into half-time 2-1 in Spurs’ favour.

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The second-half also saw Spurs create the better chances, and Kane came close in the 50th minute but was denied by a vital save from West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

Despite the threat of Spurs counter-attacks, the visitors kept pushing and fashioned a couple of good chances, but could not convert to level the game.

It was Spurs, however, who had the last laugh after Son converted from a flick by Harry Kane in the 88th minute to put an end to West Ham’s homes of levelling the game.

The win took Spurs to the fifth spot in the Premier League table, above Manchester United, with both teams level in terms of the number of games played.

West Ham, meanwhile, are seventh with 48 points from 30 games.