ARE you watching Merse?
Harry Kane rammed Paul Merson’s criticism back down his throat by sealing Tottenham’s derby win.
The former Arsenal ace had claimed the England skipper would find goals hard to come by under Jose Mourinho.
But the England captain perhaps showed why Merse was such a poor tipster as he marked his 200th league appearance for Spurs with their second goal against the hapless Hammers.
Merson had slammed Kane’s performance and Mourinho’s tactics in their 1-1 draw against Manchester United on Friday.
He reckoned the 2018 World Cup Golden Boot ace would not get much joy in front of goal under Mourinho.
And for a long while last night, it looked like Merson might be right as Kane missed a couple of chances as the hosts were forced to rely on Tomas Soucek’s own goal to give them a second-half lead.
But Kane showed why you should never write him off as he finally put one of his chances away to give his side a deserved win.
Mourinho had stuck up for his frontman in his pre-match press conference by saying he deserved to be called “Hero Kane”.
Well, he was certainly Tottenham’s hero again as he notched his 30th goal in a London derby.
And the worrying thing for their rivals is that he is nowhere near fully fit yet.
This was only his second match since he ruptured his hamstring in Spurs’ 1-0 defeat at Southampton on New Year’s Day – and it showed.
But he looked better than he did against United on Friday and you can be sure he will be even better in the next game when Spurs travel to Sheffield United for their Euro crunch in nine days.
Mourinho’s first match in charge of Tottenham was a 3-2 win at West Ham in November.
This sparked Spurs’ hopes that the new manager would be able to use his old magic to turn their poor start around.
But after an upturn, the bounce soon deflated after the New Year and they went into the lockdown on the back of six matches without a win and almost in as poor a state as when Mourinho took over.
The Special One’s pragmatic approach was always going to be more of a problem for Spurs’ cultured fans than his links to rivals Chelsea.
He was rattled by criticism of his tactics by Merson following the draw against United and arrived at his pre-match press conference with a dossier of stats as a lengthy response.
In fairness to Mourinho, many matches under his predecessor Mauricio Pochettino in the last year were even more tedious.
And talking of tedium, on this week’s evidence it is no wonder West Ham’s owners were against resuming the season.
Forget null and void – the Hammers were dull and devoid as they crashed 2-0 at home to Wolves on Saturday.
A club which began the season with hopes of reaching the Champions League are now in serious danger of spending next season in the Championship.
Regardless of whether they stay up or not, the final analysis of the Hammers’ campaign will conclude the appointment of Manuel Pellegrini, a man short on personality, was catastrophic at a club which have historically performed better under bosses with charisma.
His successor Moyes would have known the enormity of the challenge he faced, but even the Scot must have been shocked by just how poor his injury-hit squad have been.
Injuries are one thing, ineptitude is quite another – although they looked more comfortable playing behind these closed doors, than their own.
Only when this stadium is empty can you fully appreciate its awesome majestic beauty.
You had the feeling the ban on fans would benefit the hosts more than visitors – whose noisy followers have always regarded the short trip across the capital as one of the highlights of their calendar.
As we saw at Goodison Park on Sunday, a local derby is nothing without the hostility created by rival fans.
So fair play to the Met Police helicopter for circling over the stadium in the first half to provide one of the familiar sounds traditionally associated with this fixture.
The action down below struggled to take off as Pablo Fornals was shown a yellow card for a 14th-minute lunge on Spurs right-back Serge Aurier
Lucas Moura missed Tottenham’s first game back with a head injury.
But he provided the game’s first real shot on goal when his 25 yarder was tipped over the bar by West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski.
The Pole then comfortably gathered another long-range effort from Kane.
Spurs thought they had taken the lead when Son Heung-min checked inside the box and fired a low shot past Fabianski and into the bottom corner.
But ref Craig Pawson was forced to disallow it after VAR David Coote spotted the South Korean was offside when he collected the ball from Giovani Lo Celso.
The hosts’ frustration was only compounded even further by Moura blazing wide after Ben Davies had pulled the ball back to him in the centre of the box.
Kane had a great chance to put Spurs ahead in the 49th minute when Aurier got in behind the Hammers defence and sent in a low cross.
But his flick was blocked by Fabianski, with the ball rebounding back off the England man and out for a goal kick.
West Ham offered little going forward and Fornals should have done better when he skewed Jarrod Bowen’s cross wide from ten yards.
Kane then fired over from the edge of the box before turning Lo Celso’s cross a whisker wide in the 59th minute.
Michail Antonio, who scored the winner when West Ham became the first team to win here last April, nearly made him pay when he outpaced the home defence only to blaze his shot high over the bar.
And it was a Hammers’ star who broke the deadlock after Lo Celso’s 64th-minute corner was glanced on by Moura and went in off the inside of Soucek’s leg.
Kane scored Spurs’ second with a cool finish after Son played him through in the 82nd minute.
