Mauricio Pochettino was proud of his Tottenham side after they breezed past West Ham to book a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Arsenal.
Son Heung-min marked his 150th appearance for Spurs with his first two goals of the season to set up a 3-1 victory.
Lucas Perez briefly halved the deficit but Fernando Llorente, handed a rare run-out with Harry Kane rested, wrapped up victory for Spurs.
"Finally, I'm back to scoring!" 🗣️ Hear from a delighted Sonny after his brace at the London Stadium tonight. #COYS pic.twitter.com/SrMQQidh30 — Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 31, 2018
The visitors had, of course, been in action just 48 hours earlier against Manchester City on a dreadful Wembley pitch, so Pochettino made 10 changes to his line-up with Davinson Sanchez the only survivor.
The Spurs boss said: “I feel very happy, to play two competitive games in 48 hours, Manchester City and then a London derby, I feel very proud.
“The performance was very good, always we try to play better but for different circumstances we have to be happy.
🗣️ Mauricio: "It's so important to reach the quarter-finals and it was a fantastic opportunity for a lot of players to show their quality. It was a very good performance." #COYS pic.twitter.com/BGEkZpEYJR — Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) October 31, 2018
“Some players are working so hard, trying to wait for their opportunity, and then Davinson Sanchez played two games in 48 hours – and he was fantastic. I can’t praise him enough.”
Pochettino will now come up against a familiar face when he takes Spurs to their north London rivals in the last eight.
“Now it will be an exciting game, exciting to play Arsenal and face Unai Emery,” added Pochettino.
“He’s a top manager and a good friend, and he’s doing a great job. I think he is one of the greatest managers.
“Of course, it is a little bit ironic that it is our worst enemies in West Ham and then Arsenal, but I love Manuel (Pellegrini) and Unai and we have a very good relationship.”
Son opened the scoring after 16 minutes and was gifted a second shortly after half-time by dithering West Ham full-back Arthur Masuaku.
When Perez nodded in from a corner there was a sniff of a comeback from the Hammers, who had come from 2-0 down to win at Wembley at the same stage last season.
It was quickly snuffed out by Llorente. Angelo Ogbonna had just managed to stop the first of two pitch invaders in his tracks, but he let the Spaniard give him the slip to sweep in Tottenham’s third.
Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini refused to blame the fans who ran onto the pitch for the lapse in concentration.
“I don’t think it is good for football,” he said. “One of the most important things the Premier League has is, it is always organised so I think that it is not good for football.
“When you lose a goal like that and the game it is not good to try and find excuses.
“The first goal also came after we dominated the game and they scored. After that we made mistakes, for the second goal as well.
“It was important to continue in this cup, but we couldn’t. But we must always think that the Premier League is more important on Saturday.”
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Andy Sims, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '075f4aaa-fe44-49ee-a74c-525e4bf6af89');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:match-reports,paservice:sport:uk,paservice:sport:world');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Mauricio Pochettino proud of Tottenham after brushing aside West Ham'});
