Tottenham Picked a Fine Time to Go All Spursy

The charge was full on.

With nine triumphs on the trot, the talent kept showing why.

Here was Tottenham Hotspur, mounting an ominous pursuit of Chelsea for top spot in a Premiership race that looked totally Blue in December.

And here they were again, going all Spursy when they could least afford it.

Not to say that Arsenal isn't Tottenham's most heated rival, but there's never been much love lost between Spurs and West Ham United, either.

On this night, the mid-table Hammers rose to quite an occasion, putting away the goal they needed and thwarting the North Londoners at every turn to register a 1-0 victory that was nothing less than soul-crushing for Chelsea's challengers.

Last season, the young Spurs were a virtual villain, trying to spoil Leicester City's feelgood story of the century.

This time around ... well ... it wasn't for lack of trying:

Manuel Lanzini stuck in the night's only dagger, leaving Harry Kane & Co bewildered as to why they couldn't.

With Chelsea's closing schedule including a mediocre Midlands side in West Brom and an already-doomed Middlesbrough, it may well have been that one point was as close as Spurs were ever gonna get.

But unless the Blues suffer a total collapse, for the second straight season, Tottenham's headed for an off-season with an empty feeling that a late-campaign swoon will feed the wonderment of what might've been.