Much of the early attention was on Mohammed Kudus, who saw plenty of the ball and had an early shot blocked while being the target of boos and chants from his former supporters.
The Hammers came agonisingly close to having reason to celebrate as the quarter-hour mark approached, with El Hadji Malick Diouf delivering dangerous crosses and a nicely worked move culminating in Lucas Paqueta sliding his shot marginally wide.
There were still ironic cheers from the home faithful when Kudus’ corner was headed in by Cristian Romero but the goal was ruled out due to Micky van de Ven fouling Kyle Walker-Peters.
The Lilywhites started to get on top as the half progressed despite their goal being ruled out, and their corner count rose with one routine culminating in Pape Matar Sarr heading off-target from Pedro Porro’s cross.
The visitors had a needlessly nervy moment of their own when Van de Ven’s header on Jarrod Bowen’s cross made things awkward for Guglielmo Vicario.
At the other end, Mads Hermansen smothered Romero and Paqueta cleared in the crowded box to ensure the teams went into the break level.
Parity didn’t remain much longer after the restart, as it took just two second-half minutes for Sarr to nod in Xavi Simons’ corner.
Bowen looked to respond immediately with an attempt that Vicario touched wide before holding a Diouf header.
The hosts’ misery was compounded further when Tomas Soucek was sent off for a dangerous challenge on Joao Palhinha, while also conceding a free-kick move that culminated in Lucas Bergvall looping his header out of Hermansen’s reach to double the away side’s lead.
Spurs’ afternoon got even better in the 64th minute when Bergvall found Van de Ven, who picked out the bottom corner with a first-time finish.
With the damage done, home fans filtered out while shouts of ‘olé’ came from the away end as Spurs cruised to the third win from their four PL matches this term.
In contrast, the joy from West Ham’s win over Nottingham Forest was short-lived as the Hammers suffered a fourth defeat from their five matches across all competitions, but Hermansen and Andy Irving denied Kudus late on to avoid any further humiliation.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lucas Bergvall (Tottenham)
