Issa Diop’s rest did him the power of good as he came back with a display of enormous strength, power and defensive magnificence against Spurs.

In a performance of truly brilliant displays all across the Hammers team his was the one that caught the eye of most top judges and it’s probably true to sat that his was the performance – next to Lukasz Fabianski’s which swung the match.

Fair play to manager Manuel Pellegrini who realised that the young defender may be approaching burn out and rested him after the Everton game after the Everton debacle.

The 22 year old returned yesterday with a display to die for and but for a little more composure in front of goal could have crowned a near 10/10 performance with a quality goal after a solo run staring on the half way line.

Alan Shearer knows a thing or two about central defenders and drooled about his performance on Match of the Day saying: ” “I could pick out a few performances but a towering display from Issa Diop, everything he did was almost perfect.

His tackling, reading of the game, pace, getting in front of forwards all afternoon. His awareness of what’s going on in and around him, he won so many tackles. He was immense. There was no way through for Tottenham.