Nuno Espirito Santo claims Tottenham were 'better team' in West Ham loss

Nuno Espirito Santo claimed his Tottenham side were the "better team" in their 1-0 loss at West Ham on Sunday, despite their lack of creativity and potency up front.

It was a scrappy clash between the two London sides in Stratford, but Michail Antonio's strike from a corner proved to be the winner for the Hammers, as Spurs could not muster up any sort of response after going behind.

It marked the end of a pretty dismal week for Santo. He had left his entire first choice starting XI at home for the Europa Conference League trip to Vitesse in midweek and saw his side defeated 1-0 in Holland, before those who were rested failed to show up in the loss at the London Stadium.

Tottenham had no shots on goal in the second half and the performance was eerily reminiscent of Jose Mourinho's darkest days with the Lilywhites, but Nuno believes his side deserved to win the match.

He said: "We were the better team, honestly. I think we controlled the game, we had chances. We had possession. West Ham are a good team but they only created chances on counter-attacks and set-pieces. We played better, but this is football.

"The last pass was there but we need to be more aggressive in our offensive game. We controlled the game. The whole game was under control.

"The table is a reference but doesn't guide us. We have to improve our character as a team, our wish to want to achieve a better team game. We need to work on that."

Nuno has been criticised for his in-game management, often deciding not to make substitutions, and he waited until the 84th minute to shake things up on Sunday.

However, when asked whether he regretted not changing things sooner, he replied: "No, the game like I said was under control.

"Changes are required when we think we should. The boys were playing good and then we made the changes in the moment that we felt that the team needed."

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