Ange Postecoglou felt Tottenham’s 1-1 draw at West Ham was a step in the right direction despite dropping more points in the top-four race.

Brennan Johnson’s early strike was cancelled out by a goal from Kurt Zouma as a frantic London derby ended all square.

“I thought for the most part we controlled the game pretty well,” said the Spurs boss.

“They are a big strong team. They sit deep and make it difficult for you. You have to be fairly calm in your approach but also really disciplined because they are a threat from the counter-attack.

“We conceded from a set-piece but the rest of the set-pieces we coped with really well. In the front third we lacked a bit of clarity of thought.

“But they are human beings, it is just football. I would love to have a joystick and put them where I want them, but it doesn’t work like that.

“Sometimes we have more time than we think. There were times when the ball was flashed across the box when we should have been in those areas.

“It is all part of the development. That is why we have coaches, why we develop a system. We are not the finished article and we know that.

“There was enough there tonight for me to say that it is a team still heading in the right direction.”

West Ham should have gone ahead inside four minutes when Mohammed Kudus rolled the ball across goal, but Jarrod Bowen put a simple chance wide.

Just over a minute later they were behind when Tottenham put a carbon copy chance away, Timo Werner crossing for Johnson to sweep home.

The Hammers equalised in bizarre fashion in the 19th minute when Bowen swung in a corner.

With Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario rooted to his line, the unmarked Zouma went up for a header and glanced the ball into the net off his back.

Michail Antonio spurned a glorious chance to put West Ham ahead after half-time when he held off Micky van de Ven to go one on one with Vicario, only to fluff his finish.

Destiny Udogie could have won it for Spurs in stoppage time but drilled his shot straight at Lukasz Fabianski.

“It was probably fair in the end, we did a lot of good things and showed much more resilience in defence tonight,” said Hammers boss David Moyes.

“We looked a threat and had to do a good job to stop a very good Tottenham team.”

Moyes, whose side won 2-1 at Tottenham in December, added: “Overall, if you’re giving me four points off Spurs before the season started, I’d have shaken your hand, walked away and said ‘thanks very much’.”

David Moyes took the handbrake off West Ham and watched them race into the last eight of the Europa League with a 5-0 win over Freiburg.

Hammers boss Moyes uncharacteristically named an attacking line-up in a bid to repair the damage of the 1-0 first-leg defeat in Germany last week.

He was rewarded with a sparkling display as goals from Lucas Paqueta, Jarrod Bowen, Aaron Cresswell and two from Mohammed Kudus – including a sensational solo effort – secured a 5-1 aggregate win and a place in a European quarter-final for a third-successive season.

As a consequence the Hammers may have also done some of their Premier League rivals a favour, with the result pushing England ahead of Germany in UEFA’s coefficient rankings, which could mean an extra spot in Europe next season.

Despite some indifferent domestic form, West Ham – last season’s Europa Conference League winners – seem to come alive on these European nights.

Two years ago, at the same stage of the same competition, they memorably overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit against Spanish Europa League specialists Sevilla.

There were fears that that crackling atmosphere might be difficult to recreate, with many fans unable to make the match due to the unusual 5.45pm kick-off time.

But the London Stadium was still almost full and it erupted after just nine minutes as Freiburg saw their advantage wiped out.

Cresswell swung in a third-successive corner, Tomas Soucek stooped to flick the ball on and the unmarked Paqueta slid it in at the far post.

Just after the half-hour mark, West Ham had their second as Bowen celebrated his latest call-up to the England squad in style, shrugging off the attentions of Freiburg captain Christian Gunter before lashing home from 20 yards.

Freiburg still posed a threat, though, with Roland Sallai firing across goal and wide just to let West Ham know the tie was still very much in the balance at half-time.

That lasted until six minutes into the second half, when Bowen’s square ball across the box was deflected out to Cresswell, lurking on the edge of the area.

The left-back, who was the fall guy in Frankfurt two years when his red card in the semi-final against Eintracht cost West Ham dearly, took a touch before leathering the ball inside the far post.

The best was still to come, despite there being little sign of danger when Kudus picked the ball up deep inside his own half.

The former Ajax wideman sprinted around 70 yards, slicing through the heart of the Freiburg defence before casually rolling the ball into the net.

No wonder Kudus felt the need to borrow a photographer’s stool and sit down in front of the delirious home fans as his team-mates celebrated around him.

The rest had clearly done Kudus good, as he promptly collected Bowen’s lay-off and dispatched a low drive from 20 yards to complete West Ham’s five-star display.

Egypt captain Mohamed Salah was forced off with an injury before his side twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with Ghana in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Egypt and Liverpool fans face an anxious wait to discover the extent of the problem after the 31-year-old was forced off in the last minute of the first half of a thrilling Group B contest.

Salah slumped dejectedly to the ground with an apparent muscle injury and, after briefly being attended to by Egypt’s medical staff, handed over the armband to defender Ahmed Hegazi as he was replaced by Mostafa Fathi.

To add insult to injury, moments later West Ham forward Mohammed Kudus broke the deadlock in brilliant fashion as he held off the attentions of three defenders before drilling a left-footed shot into the bottom corner.

Salah, who scored a stoppage-time equaliser from the penalty spot as Egypt drew 2-2 with Mozambique in their first group game, had earlier been involved in a furious row with referee Pierre Atcho after Omar Marmoush went down in the area.

Salah appeared to be appealing for a penalty despite a free-kick being given against Marmoush and the former was perhaps fortunate not to be shown a yellow card for his vehement protests.

Despite the loss of Salah, Egypt started the second half well and had a goal disallowed for offside in the 51st minute before the impressive Marmoush was gifted the chance to equalise.

The 24-year-old pounced on a woeful backpass from Inaki Williams and calmly rounded goalkeeper Richard Ofori before sliding the ball into an empty net from a narrow angle.

Parity lasted just two minutes however, Kudus receiving a pass from Denis Odoi in the area and seeing his left-footed shot take a slight deflection off the unfortunate Mohamed Abdelmonem and beyond goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy.

The breathless action showed no signs of slowing and Egypt equalised for the second time just three minutes later, with Ghana again guilty of contributing to their own downfall.

Osman Bukari was dispossessed by Trezeguet on the right-hand side of his own area and the Trabzonspor midfielder drove to the byline before pulling the ball back for Mostafa Mohamed to stab home.

David Moyes was frustrated at not being able to pick Mohammed Kudus for West Ham’s goalless draw against Brighton.

Ghana forward Kudus, arguably West Ham’s best player this season, was unavailable due to his forthcoming participation at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Yet Egypt’s Mohamed Salah was able to play for Liverpool against Newcastle 24 hours earlier, scoring twice in a 4-2 win before the deadline for players to link up with their countries.

In a thinly-disguised dig at the Premier League’s schedulers and the decision to move this match for television a day later, Moyes said: “It feels a bit strange that we’re playing on the second of January.

“Could we not have played on the first and allowed our African players to be allowed to play yesterday, because they can’t play today?

“I feel that’s something which isn’t correct. I just think why couldn’t we have our African players the same as everybody else?

“Brighton might have had players at the Asian Games – I know (Kaoru) Mitoma’s injured I think – but they might have the same feeling.

“It’s nothing to do with the performance, Brighton were without lots of good players and we were without lots of good players.

“But I don’t see at this point why you would play a game and be disadvantaged by some of your players not being able to play. I’m not saying any more.”

The decision to move the match for television looked even more baffling as two weary teams fought out a lifeless goalless draw.

Given that it was West Ham’s ninth game in a month, and Brighton’s eighth, the managers would probably have shaken hands on a draw before kick-off and gone to watch the darts instead.

Tomas Soucek stabbed West Ham’s best chance wide but Brighton were the better side after the break, with Hammers keeper Alphonse Areola making fine saves to deny Danny Welbeck and Adam Lallana.

“Overall we’ve had a brilliant Christmas period on the points front,” added Moyes, whose side began the year inside the top six. “I’m thrilled to win three, including Arsenal and Manchester United, and draw one. From a points point of view we’ve done really well.

“It’s the first time this season we’ve looked really jaded and tired tonight but all the boys have done a brilliant job. Brighton have been our bogey club in recent years and we’ve taken four points off them this season. But I want it to be better and I know it has to get better.”

Seagulls boss Roberto De Zerbi had little doubt what was missing from his side.

“A goal,” was his simple response.

“Today we deserved to win but we played an amazing game, one of the best in my time.

“West Ham are very good in counter-attack and we played a smart game. I can’t say anything about my players because I’m delighted with the performance.

“We have injuries but we have great character and great spirit.”

Luke Shaw surveyed the wreckage of Manchester United’s latest defeat and admitted: “It’s just not good enough.”

The Red Devils went down 2-0 at West Ham to slip to their 13th loss from 26 matches this season.

They have now gone four matches in a row without scoring for the first time since 1992 after another limp display.

“It’s just not good enough really, we have to win games and that’s it,” full-back Shaw told TNT Sports.

“We keep losing games, losing points and we’re making it very hard for ourselves – especially that second half, it’s not good enough.

“In the first half, we controlled the game, I think we had chances again. If we score the first goal, maybe the result is different, but we don’t, so we suffered in that second half and, again, it’s not good enough.”

Second-half goals from Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus lifted West Ham up to sixth in the Premier League, while United slid down to eighth.

Hammers boss David Moyes came in for criticism for making six changes in their 5-1 Carabao Cup defeat at Liverpool in midweek.

But the Scot stood by that decision as he looked back on a largely successful 2023, including West Ham’s memorable Europa Conference League win last season.

“Our record here at home is as good as most,” he said. “Of course we can think of clubs who will do better, but for us we’ve had a brilliant year.

“The players we’ve had, whether they’ve gone or whether it’s new ones we’ve brought in, we’ve had a fantastic year, with a trophy in the middle of it.

“It looks like if you don’t quite give everyone what they want then you get criticism for it, but I don’t think we could have won on Saturday if we had played all the players in midweek.”

Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus consigned makeshift Manchester United to another defeat as West Ham snatched a 2-0 victory at the London Stadium.

England hopeful Bowen scored his 12th goal of the season and Ghana winger Kudus his seventh in 12 appearances as United were sent spinning to a 20th loss of 2023, their worst tally in 34 years.

For 72 minutes two poor teams were cancelling each other out in a dreadful spectacle until Bowen broke the deadlock.

And six minutes later Kudus added a second which, while flattering West Ham, condemned United to a 13th defeat in their last 26 matches.

With Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane all absent, United boss Erik Ten Hag was forced to draft 19-year-old Willy Kambwala in at centre-half for a first senior appearance.

Kambwala acquitted himself well enough but it was another lifeless performance from a thoroughly dispirited side.

The only saving grace for United for long periods was that West Ham, ‘fresh’ from their midweek Carabao Cup mauling at Liverpool, were just as bad.

That was despite David Moyes playing his strongest team, having made six changes for the chastening 5-1 Anfield defeat.

After 33 turgid minutes Antony came up with United’s first shot on target, a tame 20-yard effort easily held by Alphonse Areola.

Moments later came the best chance of the opening period, Antony playing in Alejandro Garnacho whose low finish was kept out by the right boot of Areola.

Garnacho saw another chance deflected over before Areola fumbled a Kobbie Mainoo drive which he was relieved to see roll wide.

Antony’s low cross then just evaded Rasmus Hojlund with a stretching Garnacho only able to turn the ball into the side-netting.

Just before half-time Tomas Soucek met a James Ward-Prowse free-kick with a header which flew wide.

But a horrible, hotch-potch of a first half was probably best summed up when Soucek needed lengthy treatment on a facial injury inflicted by the back of the head of his own team-mate, Emerson Palmieri.

After the break Andre Onana did well to tip a powerful Bowen header from Ward-Prowse’s corner over the crossbar.

Ten Hag introduced the out-of-favour Marcus Rashford for the ineffective Hojlund just before the hour.

But it was Bowen who made the breakthrough when he played the ball to Lucas Paqueta, collected the return pass and bundled the ball in off Onana.

And Brazil star Paqueta was the creator once more with his fifth assist in a row in the Premier League.

He slipped in Kudus to kill off United with a fine low finish to deepen the gloom surrounding Ten Hag’s sorry side.

Mikel Arteta took the blame for Arsenal’s painful 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat at West Ham.

Arteta made six changes to his line-up for the fourth-round clash, starting with Declan Rice on the bench on his Hammers homecoming.

Rice, who lifted the Europa Conference League trophy as West Ham captain last season, was back at his old club for the first time since his £105million switch to the Gunners.

But he will not be getting his hands on the Carabao Cup this season after strikes from Mohammed Kudus and Jarrod Bowen, following an early own goal by Ben White, sent the north Londoners crashing out.

“I’m very disappointed,” said Gunners boss Arteta. “I’m responsible for that, we’re out of the cup, we wanted to play a very different game and compete.

“The game took a direction because of the first goal but we have to see much more from the team and earn the right to win.

“I’m disappointed with myself. We wanted to play in a different way and we weren’t able to do that. Every time we lose the pain is there.

“We have to use this pain and this defeat to prepare the best way for Newcastle on Saturday.”

West Ham took the lead after 15 minutes when Bowen’s corner was inadvertently headed past Aaron Ramsdale by White at the near post.

The second goal arrived in the 50th minute when Ghana winger Kudus collected a long ball into the box from Nayef Aguerd, skipped past Oleksandr Zinchenko and rifled a low shot through the legs of Gabriel and into the net.

Rice was the only goalscorer the last time West Ham beat Arsenal, in the Premier League in 2019.

“You should have signed for a big club” was the mischievous chant aimed at the 24-year-old when he came out to warm up.

Much of the build-up to the match centred around the reception the England midfielder would receive and when he was sent on in the 56th minute the boos were quickly drowned out by a standing ovation from most of the home fans.

But, before Rice had a chance to get into the game, West Ham had a third after Bowen collected White’s headed clearance and lashed it past Ramsdale via a deflection off Jakub Kiwior.

Martin Odegaard scored a consolation goal with the last kick but it was West Ham’s night as they marched into the quarter-finals.

“It was a really good solid team performance. The forward players did a really good job and for long periods we were good defensively. For most of it we coped well,” said boss David Moyes.

“Maybe we are becoming quite a good cup team. I want to be a really good league team if I can be but if I can’t quite do that then we have to do well in the cups if we can.

“We have only won against Arsenal, we don’t get trophies for that.”

Mohammed Kudus climbed off the bench to score his first Premier League goal as West Ham snatched a 2-2 draw against Newcastle.

The Magpies looked set to follow up their memorable 4-1 Champions League win over Paris St Germain on Wednesday with a hard-earned three points on the road after Alexander Isak’s quickfire double cancelled out Tomas Soucek’s early opener.

But Ghana winger Kudus, the £38million summer signing from Ajax, struck a minute from full-time to earn the hosts a deserved point.

West Ham, who had their own continental exertions in the Europa League against Freiburg on Thursday, took the lead with the first attack of the match.

Lucas Paqueta was the architect with an exquisite chip which sent Emerson Palmieri racing through on goal.

The full-back knocked the ball past Nick Pope before unselfishly squaring it for Soucek to tuck into an empty net.

Bruno Guimaraes, who signed a new contract at Newcastle this week, was lucky to escape an early red card when, seconds after being booked for fouling Emerson, he blatantly tripped James Ward-Prowse.

Newcastle, as many teams do at West Ham, dominated possession – they had 72 per cent in the first half – yet all they had to show for it was a Miguel Almiron shot from 25 yards which flew wide and Dan Burn glancing a header the wrong side of the post.

David Moyes revealed after Paqueta’s star turn in the 2-1 win in Freiburg that the Brazilian playmaker at times has him “tearing his hair out”.

One such maddening moment came in first-half stoppage time when he tried one trick too many and was dispossessed inside the West Ham half, but Newcastle were unable to take advantage as the hosts eventually cleared their lines.

After the break Edson Alvarez, West Ham’s Mexican midfield enforcer, was inches from his first goal for the club when he headed Ward-Prowse’s corner wide.

Newcastle finally tested Hammers keeper Alphonse Areola, who made an incredible save to keep out Burn’s header from Isak’s cross.

But moments later the visitors drew level, Isak reacting quickest after Alvarez inadvertently headed Kieran Trippier’s free-kick back across goal and firing home.

And within five minutes Newcastle were leading when Trippier’s superb cushioned volley-cross was tucked away from close range by Isak.

The Sweden striker went agonisingly close to claiming a hat-trick when he rounded Areola but, from a tight angle, could only hit the post.

It proved costly when Kudus collected Vladimir Coufal’s pass 20 yards out and lashed the equaliser past Pope.

The Hammers almost won it in stoppage time but Said Benrahma was just unable to convert Jarrod Bowen’s drive across goal.

David Moyes gave the kudos to Mohammed Kudus after the Ghana winger helped West Ham come from behind to beat Europa League minnows TSC Backa Topola 3-1.

The Hammers made heavy weather of the opening match of their latest European adventure on a stormy night in Stratford, but headers from £38million summer signing Kudus and substitute Tomas Soucek got the Hammers off to a winning start.

East London was hit by torrential rain before kick-off with water cascading through the roof onto the concourses at London Stadium.

The floodgates failed to open on the pitch in the first half, however, despite West Ham being in the rare position of dominating possession on the soggy surface, and they fell behind after a mistake by Angelo Ogbonna.

“Tonight I thought we did enough to win although I didn’t think we were great in a lot of things we did,” said Moyes.

“The goal was probably our own doing but I didn’t fear the worst. It was a game where we had the lot of the ball and gave us a chance to see if we could do what teams have done to us lately.

“The mistake changed the game – but it also made us more determined.

“Kudus I thought started really brightly and came up with an important goal when I couldn’t really see where we would get one from.”

The Hammers had 78 per cent possession in the first half, which was the exact opposite of their stats during the recent smash-and-grab win at Brighton.

But Moyes got a taste of his own medicine when Ogbonna dawdled on the halfway line and Petar Sanic raced clear to give the Serbians a shock lead.

However the Hammers, whose last European outing was their triumphant Europa Conference League final win over Fiorentina in June, hit back in the 66th minute, albeit in fortunate fashion as Said Benrahma’s cross was turned in at the far post by TSC defender Nemanja Petrovic.

Kudus got his goal four minutes later and Soucek headed the third – with both coming from James Ward-Prowse corners – to finally ease West Ham nerves.

TSC coach Zarko Lazetic said: “We are disappointed and a little bit angry. We respect the other team, but we felt we definitely had an opportunity.

“Our tactic was to come and win and we feel sorry it didn’t happen.”

West Ham have confirmed the signing of Mohammed Kudus on a five-year deal.

The 23-year-old joins the Hammers from Ajax for an undisclosed fee to become the club’s third signing of the summer transfer window.

He scored 19 goals and provided seven assists in all competitions for Ajax last season, including goals against Liverpool and Napoli in the Champions League.

“I’ve been dreaming to play in a league like this since I was a kid,” Kudus told the club website.

“I’ve been dreaming of this moment and I’m so happy to be here. But it doesn’t stop here, I want to keep going.

“I try my best to entertain the fans as I think that’s what football is all about. I’m just here to do my best and help the team. I’m really happy to be here. I will fight for the badge. I can’t wait to get started.”

Kudus has also earned 24 caps for Ghana on the international stage and featured for them in last year’s World Cup.

Manager David Moyes said: “I’m delighted we’ve been able to bring Mohammed to West Ham.

“He’s a terrific young talent, who has already shone at the very highest level for Ajax in the Champions League and made well over 150 senior appearances at the age of 23 – so it was no surprise to see so many top clubs chasing his signature this summer.”