The Tottenham Hotspur F.C.–West Ham United F.C. rivalry is a rivalry between London-based professional association football clubs Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. Tottenham Hotspur play their home games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while West Ham United play their home games at the London Stadium. The two stadiums are only 5 miles (8 km) apart from each other. , 226 games have been played between the two teams, 102 of which were won by Tottenham and 68 by West Ham.
Despite the two clubs' close proximity, the intensity in the rivalry has only increased in recent years due to West Ham being a regular in the English top-flight alongside Spurs, far from their most intense rivals in Millwall and other East London-based outfits, as well as several notable players moving between the two clubs, especially from the Irons to Tottenham. Recent matches have relatively been even and competitive, with the two at various times being close to one another in the Premier League standings, have also contributed to an increased intensity.
Tottenham fans have considered West Ham a distant tertiary rival behind Arsenal and Chelsea, while West Ham fans have considered Tottenham to be their primary rival in the Premier League.
History
Early years Tottenham Hotspur was founded in 1882 by schoolboys from the Tottenham area, while West Ham United was founded in 1895 by shipbuilders from the Thames Ironworks company. On 3 September 1898, the two teams had their first meeting in the Thames and Medway League, which Spurs won 3–0 at home. They would meet frequently in the non-league for the next 10 years, until Tottenham was elected into the Football League in 1908. West Ham would themselves later get elected into the Football League in 1919. On 21 February 1920, the two clubs would meet for the first time in the FA Cup which Tottenham again won 3–0. That same season they met for the first time in the Football League's Second Division with West Ham prevailing 2–1 at home. 8 days later, Tottenham would win the return fixture 2–0.
1950–1992 During the 1949–50 season, Tottenham completed a league double over the Hammers, winning 1–0 at the Boleyn Ground and 4–1 at White Hart Lane, en route to winning the Second Division title and promotion to the First Division, where they then immediately won their first-ever top-flight league title.
In 1958, West Ham returned to the Football League First Division after a 32-year hiatus following promotion from winning the Second Division. During their first season back, they completed a league double over Tottenham with both games on consecutive days on Christmas and Boxing Day, 2–1 at home and 4–1 away. During the 1960–61 season, Tottenham completed a league double with both games either side of Christmas day, 2–0 at home and 3–0 away, en route to winning their second-ever top-flight league title. During the 1960's, both clubs were successful both domestically and abroad with Spurs winning the aforementioned 1961 league title as well as 3 FA Cup's, and the 1963 Cup Winners' Cup, while West Ham won the 1964 FA Cup final and the subsequent 1965 Cup Winners' Cup. Both also had key players for England's triumph of the 1966 World Cup, with West Ham being represented by Martin Peters, England captain Bobby Moore, and final hat-trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst, while Tottenham were represented by striker Jimmy Greaves with England manager Sir Alf Ramsey being a former Tottenham player himself. In March 1970, West Ham and Tottenham agreed to swap Peters for Greaves with Spurs agreeing to pay a then-record £200,000 for Peters' services. Greaves, who had just become Tottenham's all-time record goalscorer, spent a single season at the Hammers, though scored in his return to White Hart Lane in a 2–2 draw. Peters, meanwhile, would spend 5 full seasons in North London where he won two League Cups and the inaugural UEFA Cup in 1972 over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
During the 1976–77 season, Tottenham suffered a shock relegation after finishing bottom of the First Division, 3 points and 5 places behind West Ham. The next season, Tottenham secured promotion on the final day on goal difference over Brighton & Hove Albion, while the Hammers would end up relegated after losing their final game of the season, 0–2 at home to Liverpool. West Ham would not return to England's top-flight for 3 seasons, during which time they won the 1980 FA Cup final over Tottenham's North London rivals Arsenal and reached the final of the 1980–81 Football League Cup, which during their run prevailed 1–0 over Tottenham in the fifth round en route to the final, where they lost to Liverpool in a replay. In the 1986–87 Football League Cup, the two teams met in the quarter-finals with the initial match-up ending 1–1 at the Boleyn Ground, and forcing a replay at White Hart Lane which Spurs won 5–0. In the final season of the Football League First Division in 1991–92, they split the league fixtures with both teams winning at home but West Ham finished bottom of the standings and missed out on the inaugural season of the new breakaway FA Premier League.
Premier League era During the 1992–93 season, West Ham gained automatic promotion on the first time of asking after finishing 2nd on goal difference over Portsmouth. In their first season together in the Premier League, the Hammers finished 7 points and 2 places above Spurs in 13th with Tottenham winning 3–1 in East London but falling 1–4 in the return fixture.
On 24 February 1997, the two sides met in a memorable high-scoring back-and-forth affair with the game 2–2 by the 30th minute before John Hartson took the lead for West Ham before half-time. David Howells would even the score in the 53rd minute before Julian Dicks scored the game-winning penalty for West Ham in the 72nd minute.
During the 2001–02 season, on 15 September 2002 in their first meeting of the season, Tottenham got a dramatic 3–2 home win over West Ham after Anthony Gardner's first-ever Premier League goal in the dying minutes proved to be the winner. West Ham won the return fixture 2–0, but ended up relegated despite accruing 42 points, which remains the record for the most points by a Premier League team in a 38-game season that failed to stay up.
The "Lasagna-gate" scandal
After two seasons in the second-tier, they returned to the top-flight for the 2005–06 season. During their first meeting at Tottenham's ground, Tottenham's Mido opened the scoring in the 16th minute but a late equaliser from Anton Ferdinand in the 90th minute forced a 1–1 draw. In their second meeting on the final day of the Premier League season, Tottenham entered the game only needing a win to secure 4th-place and Champions League qualification over Arsenal, while West Ham could not qualify for more prestigious European competition through the league standings and were already guaranteed a spot in the UEFA Cup by virtue of reaching the 2006 FA Cup final. The night prior to the game, 10 Tottenham players, including key stars and former Hammers Calum Davenport and Michael Carrick, suffered from food poisoning from the lasagna they just ate for dinner. Tottenham had suggested for the game to be postponed which West Ham agreed to, but this request was swiftly denied by the Football Association, with threats of a points deduction if the game was not played when scheduled. During the game, many of Tottenham's players were visibly dejected and struggling to jog around the pitch and ended up losing 2–1 after Yossi Benayoun scored the winning goal for West Ham in the 80th minute. At the same time, Arsenal came from behind at their last game in Highbury to win 4–2 against Wigan Athletic and secure Champions League qualification and finish above Tottenham for an 11th consecutive season. Tottenham attempted to request a replay, which again the FA denied, and a full investigation and scandal dubbed "Lasagna-gate" went into the source of the stomach bug which afflected the Spurs players, which was judged to be a viral gastroenteritis rather than food poisoning. Though a myth that the chef at the hotel where they got their pre-match dinner at was an Arsenal fan who purposely poisoned their food still persists today.
The next season when the two teams met again in Upton Park on 4 March 2007, both teams were at opposite sides of the table with Tottenham again fighting for European places but West Ham staving to fight off relegation. West Ham took a 2–0 lead at the half thanks to volleys from Mark Noble and Carlos Tevez, but Spurs managed to even the score after former Hammer Jermain Defoe scored a penalty Teemu Tainio produced a sensational strike. In the 85th-minute, former Tottenham player Bobby Zamora scored a header from a free kick to give West Ham a 3–2 lead. However, Tottenham would respond 4 minutes later with a free kick from Dimitar Berbatov. In the dying seconds of stoppage time, Tottenham would break through on the counter with Defoe having a shot get saved by Rob Green who spilled the ball into the legs of Paul Stalteri, who comfortably scored a late winner. The dramatic defeat kept West Ham bottom of the league standings, 10 points off safety, but they managed to rally 7 wins from their last 9 games to get a miraculous great escape and stay up on the final day of the season.
Olympic Stadium bidding fiasco
At the turn of the decade in 2010, both Tottenham and West Ham were looking for a new stadium and saw the planned multi-purpose Olympic Stadium for the 2012 Summer Olympics in Stratford as an upgrade on their existing grounds. Because of its location in Newham, West Ham were expected to be favorites to become tenants of the new ground. West Ham, unlike Tottenham, were not opposed to keeping the Olympic track around the stadium, which put them into greater favour with the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) who were tasked by the Greater London Authority in maintaining the area following the 2012 Olympics. On March 2011, the OPLC and the UK Government ultimately awarded tenant rights to West Ham. But 3 months later, an investigation into the vote for tenancy was to be conducted after The Sunday Times claimed there was evidence of corruption and "secret payments" for votes. Soon after, West Ham pressed charges on the tabloid newspaper and Tottenham, who they claimed illegally obtained information about West Ham seeking consultancy and spread it to tabloids, which Tottenham denied. Tottenham had also sued the OPLC to force the decision of tenancy to be reversed in favour of themselves. On October 2011, the awarding of tenancy was cancelled and the stadium would be publicly owned with a new bidding process to be taken again, which Tottenham decided to back out out of in favour of building their own new stadium in Tottenham. Ultimately in 2013, West Ham prevailed again in asserting regular occupancy of the Olympic Stadium over nearby Leyton Orient.
The stadium saga and lawsuits put a strain on relations between the two clubs and Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy with West Ham co-chairmen David Gold and David Sullivan. It was so much so that in February 2015 on transfer deadline day, with Levy willing to loan or sell out-of-form striker Emmanuel Adebayor, he refused any inquiries from the Hammers in favour of offers from Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace, which the Togolese forward refused both and so he remained in the squad for the rest of the season. Seven months later, Adebayor and Tottenham agreed to mutually terminate his contract and in January 2016, he signed with Crystal Palace as a free agent.