ANGE POSTECOGLOU has insisted he does not care about finishing in the top four – and now his Tottenham side are playing like it.
It is advantage Aston Villa in that race once again after Spurs failed to punish a bruised and under pressure West Ham side – even though they took the lead after just five minutes.
Brennan Johnson got the visitors off to the perfect start, but it was another night where too many star men fell flat.
James Maddison spent more time arguing while captain Son Heung-min was well shackled by the Hammers – who earned a point thanks to Kurt Zouma’s first half leveller.
David Moyes elected to keep Kalvin Phillips out of the firing line after his latest horror show in Saturday’s defeat to Newcastle – offering the midfielder a chance to replicate his Manchester City form by spending 90 minutes on the bench.
After their sickening collapse on Tyneside at the weekend, West Ham set out to make a fast start and would have been ahead after four minutes had top scorer Bowen not fluffed his lines.
The England winger, usually so reliable in front of goal, somehow shinned a Mohammed Kudus cross wide from just yards out.
Just over a minute later, Johnson was showing him what to do from that spot.
Moyes has been scratching his head over West Ham’s poor defending in recent weeks and Tottenham’s opener will have only added to his frustration.
Destiny Udogie and Rodrigo Bentancur were allowed to push forward from the halfway line as those in claret and blue backtracked furiously.
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Bentancur fed Timo Werner, who skipped past Vladimir Coufal and cut back for Johnson to tap in – just had Bowen should have.
Moyes will have feared Stratford turning sour with an early Spurs goal, but the London Stadium stuck with their side, even as the visitors took a tighter grip of the game.
Pedro Porro flashed one effort wide of the far post before Son fired at Lukasz Fabianski.
But neither were too troublesome and the home support were rewarded for their faith shortly after.
Bowen may have missed a well-worked sitter, but West Ham fans do not care how goals come about in these games – and they don’t come much more unorthodox than in off your back.
It was Bowen’s corner which set up the leveller, a dipping in-swinger which the unmarked Zouma managed to duck out of the way of when trying to head home, though fortunately diverted it in off his spine.
The goal gave West Ham confidence and sparked a frantic London derby.
Bowen’s pace was causing problems for the returning Micky van de Ven at one end while Tottenham’s more intricate football was stretching the Hammers back line.
After James Ward-Prowse’s free-kick was stopped by Vicario, Bowen won and delivered two more dangerous corners while Lucas Paqueta showed the tough side on top of his tricks by trying to rough up Maddison, who quickly fought back with a rough challenge of his own.
The needle between those two, with Maddison’s Three Lions teammate Bowen also joining in, only added to the entertainment.
West Ham kept up the high-octane football after the break, with three big chances in the space of three minutes.
Michail Antonio was denied by Vicario, who then saved a Konstantinos Mavropanos header on the line.
The Spurs keeper would have been helpless had Paqueta managed to get his effort, after a wonderful turn on the edge of the box, on target.
After West Ham’s missed chances, Spurs looked to punch back but Coufal threw himself in front of a Maddison effort and Yves Bissouma fired wide.
Antonio has made such a difference to West Ham’s forward line since returning from injury – but he is never a player you would put your house on to finish off a simple chance.
After Paqueta had once again left Maddison in a heap on the edge of the West Ham box, Ward-Prowse walloped one forward for his No9 to chase.
Antonio did the difficult part so well, collecting the ball and bulldozing through Van de Ven, only to fire straight at Vicario with no other defenders near him.
Should West Ham miss out on Europe this season their latest January failure to add a clinical striker – having been so desperate to bring in a forward – will look plain foolish.
That lack of depth meant West Ham were largely playing for a draw by the end, though the end-to-end nature continued as Udogie fired at Fabianski and Bowen had a very late half-chance to win it – crashing into the post in the process.
West Ham remain seventh and in with a shot of a fourth straight year in Europe, despite some of the issues Moyes has battled all season.
See how the game unfolded with SunSport’s live blog below.
