Tottenham 3-3 West Ham: The Greatest Comebacks in Premier League History
By Kirsty Norfolk
After Lanzini’s 94th minute equaliser, take a look back at some of the best and most exciting comebacks in Premier League history.
Sunday 18th October 2020 saw one of the craziest, most shocking comebacks in recent years. Tottenham Hotspur hosted West Ham United in the evening kick off. The match started incredibly well for Spurs, with Son scoring in the first minute, then Harry Kane scoring again in the 8th minute. Then in the 16th minute Kane added another goal to his tally, with Tottenham going into half time 3-0 up and Kane with two goals and an assist, and they were awaiting the return of Gareth Bale to the Premier League.
The second half kicked off and a great chance was headed over by West Ham’s Pablo Fornals, then another header missed by Soucek, West Ham were piling on the pressure. Although their first half display wasn’t completely dismal, West Ham were now a different team, they were defending well and causing lots of havoc for the Spurs defence. One of Tottenham’s two best chances in the second half was missed by Harry Kane, a brilliant hattrick opportunity saved by Fabianski. Then in the 72nd minute the moment all Spurs fans have been waiting for, Steven Bergwijn was substituted for Gareth Bale, his first appearance in the Premier League in 7 years, everyone anticipated the impact he would have.
At 77 minutes, Fornals substituted for Manuel Lanzini, a seemly unimportant substitution. At 82 minutes Tottenham 3-1 West Ham, Centre Back Fabian Balbuena directs a header into the bottom-right corner from a left-wing Cresswell cross. Three minutes later…. Sanchez own goal, Tottenham 3-2 West Ham, now the pressure is building. With only seconds left of normal time, Bale finds himself one-on-one with the keeper after a dazzling run, with very few challenges he shoots, a great opportunity to put the game to bed… wide. The fourth official signals 4 minutes extra time. West Ham continue pushing for an equaliser, something Hammers fans would have dreamed of at half time. Free Kick on the left, Cresswell whips in a cross, but no West Ham players seems to make enough contact and Winks thinks he cleared just in time. The ball falls to Lanzini 30 yards out, he unleashes a remarkable strike which clips the underside of the crossbar and into the top-right corner, unsavable. In the last kick of the game West Ham make it 3-3 to grab a point after being 3-0 down after 16 minutes, a game which Tottenham should have easily seen out, but thanks to a sensational strike from Manuel Lanzini, West Ham steal a point, which adds to their impressive recent run of form.
Making history, West Ham become the first team in the Premier League to avoid defeat in a game having trailed by 3 or more goals as late as the 81st minute. This follows a decent run of form from the Hammers who beat Wolves 4-0, Leicester 3-0 and now an impressive point at Tottenham, they still have to play Manchester City and Liverpool, all of these games the bookies had West Ham to lose. Perhaps you may argue Spurs underestimated West Ham’s capabilities which let them back into the game.
This comeback inspired me to research some of the Premier League’s greatest most dramatic comebacks.
Crystal Palace 3-3 Liverpool, 2014.
Although top of the league, Liverpool went into Selhurst Park in sombre spirits due to their 2-0 loss to Chelsea the week prior. This dobbed as “Crystanbul” was Liverpool’s best hope of the league title in 20 years, after an hour played Liverpool cruised 3-0 up, but a goal from Damien Delaney sent Liverpool’s shaky defence into panic, a brace from Dwight Gale sealed the point for Palace and this game gave great hope to later champions Manchester City, as they now had a game in hand.
West Bromwich Albion 5-5 Manchester United, 2013.
A chaotic draw which marked the end of an incredibly successful 27-year Manchester United career for Alex Ferguson. Although Man Utd being 3-0 up and then having a lead of 5-2, West Brom still managed to pull it back, with a brace from Romelu Lukaku and a goal from Youssouf Mulumbu.
Wolves 4-3 Leicester, 2003 In Wolves’ first season, where they currently held bottom place, going into half 3-0 down to Leicester wouldn’t have been a pretty sight for the home supporters. However, Dave Jones’ men went out into the second half and managed to not only pull back a draw but went on to win. An 85th minute winner from Henri Camara got Wolves the win, however neither team survived, and both were relegated at the end of the season