By Louis Nixon

Both Jean-Clair Todibo and Konstantinos Mavropanos were crucial in securing the victory against Spurs this evening and deserve a lot of hard-earned credit. 

It was an admirable choice to see Mavropanos start against Spurs, given his injury that he suffered against QPR, but once again, he’s proved exactly why he needs to start alongside Todibo and not Max Kilman, because both he and Todibo look like different defenders once they work with just one another. It’s certainly the way forward. 

Against Spurs this evening, they were both pivotal, between the pair, they made a mesmerising 27 defensive contributions, with Mavropanos making 17 and Todibo 10. 

To make 14 clearances in a single match is beyond impressive. It goes to show how good Mavropanos can be in these moments, crucial moments when the confidence is high he is an amazing player to watch, and today he was unlucky not to score in the first half, a sublime effort which was matched with a great save from Vicario, unfortunately. 

For Jean-Clair, he made 9 recoveries and also won all of his ground duels, no one could get around him. Any pace that Spurs attempted to utilise in attack, Todibo was there to outrun them, and you have to say, he’s been a bright spark amongst the defence since Nuno’s arrival, even in the dire moment, he’s still proved that he has good quality. 

Numerous stats can be brought out from both Todibo and Mavropanos to prove how good they were, but the main quality was through watching the game, from picking out passes to closing the forward down, they both shone in every aspect and were very unfortunate to not walk away with a clean sheet given how much they prevented from going in. 

The entire defence, and specifically these two, should go home tonight with their heads held high because that defensive performance is one of the best we have seen all season, if not the best! It’s what the West Ham fans have been dying to see, that fight, tynasty and belief among the players and tonight, that’s exactly what we saw.