Tottenham Hotspur moved back into the Premier League’s top four as they ended a run of back-to-back defeats with a 2-0 victory over London rivals West Ham United, who remain in the relegation zone.

Spurs’ two wing-backs of the day combined to set up the first goal just 11 minutes after the break after Ben Davies slotted in Emerson Royal to grab another goal before super-substitute Heung-min Son rounded off a fine three points by latching onto Harry Kane’s through ball, with a cool timed finish past the goalkeeper.

The Lilywhites also did so in the absence of manager Antonio Conte, who despite returning for the defeats to both Leicester City and AC Milan, was continuing his recovery in Italy, though it’s another win under the stewardship of assistant manager Cristian Stellini.

Whilst the Brazilian and the South Korean were key to the victory, Oliver Skipp’s monstrous midfield masterclass went a little more unnoticed as he was the real shining star…

How did Oliver Skipp perform against West Ham?

Perhaps controversially, the England U21 international was given the nod over Pape Matar Sarr to partner Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the engine room, with both Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma now long-term absentees.

But what a decision that was.

Booked after just eight minutes, the Hotspur Way academy graduate would then walk off to a standing ovation in the 89th minute, having been replaced by the aforementioned Senegal gem.

In those 81 minutes, Skipp was absolutely outstanding, leading to praise from those at and around the match – football writer Andrew Gaffney described him as a “tireless runner” who “led by example,” whilst football.london reporter Alasdair Gold wrote in his post-match ratings column:

‘He showed a real maturity with that booking to his name and won almost everything he had to, with some tidy passing and a few driving runs, one of which saw him tee up Davies for a shot. Got a standing ovation from the crowd when he went off late on.’

Indeed, the 22-year-old powerhouse was a force of nature as he registered four tackles, which was the joint-most in the encounter, and won 73% of his duels both on the ground and aerially, outplaying the likes of Declan Rice and Lucas Paqueta.

Elsewhere, Skipp was heavily involved in the game as he notched 72 touches of the ball, in which he also recorded 47 accurate passes with a long-ball success rate of 67%, all of which via Sofascore.

The £20m-rated “machine” – as once dubbed by Opta’s Matty Hayes – clearly had a big part to say in the result, so at the end of the day, he deserves just as much credit as the likes of Emerson, Son and Hojbjerg, all of whom were truly excellent at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.

AND in other news, Signed for £15m, now worth over 4x more: Levy struck gold with Spurs’ 6 ft 2 “warrior”…