Jarrod Bowen rescued a point for West Ham as they laboured to a 1-1 draw at home to a second-string Tottenham.
Bowen scored his 10th Premier League goal for the season to cancel out Wilson Odobert’s first for Spurs.
With Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou placing all his eggs in the Europa League basket he made eight changes to rest his first-choice players for Thursday night’s semi-final second-leg trip to Norway to face Bodo/Glimt.
With Spurs minds clearly elsewhere and West Ham likely wishing away the remainder what has been a dire season, this was a match both teams could have probably done without, and it showed.
The scores of empty seats around the London Stadium for a derby summed up the apathy surrounding the club, who have now collected just 14 points from 15 matches under the increasingly beleaguered Graham Potter.
Not even the battle to avoid finishing as the lowest team in the Premier League outside of the relegation places could liven things up. As it is, West Ham remain in 17th and Spurs just one place above them, still on course for their lowest top-flight finish since they were relegated in 1977.
However, there was the bizarre sight of Lucas Paqueta seemingly in tears after receiving a second-half yellow card for a foul on Mikey Moore – the Brazilian is still awaiting the outcome of the FA hearing into allegations he deliberately got himself booked in four matches.
Tottenham were gifted the lead in the 15th minute when Hammers defender Max Kilman had two stabs at making a pretty routine clearance, but hit Mathys Tel with both of them.
The second time Tel was able to smuggle the ball away and square it across goal, where it was missed by Aaron Cresswell leaving Odobert the simple task of finishing past Alphonse Areola.
But West Ham responded just before the half-hour mark when Bowen beat the offside trap to run on to Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s through-ball.
The Hammers skipper scampered into the penalty area, cut inside and slipped the ball through the legs of Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario at his near post.
Spurs could have gone back in front six minutes before half-time when Paqueta’s lazy pass went straight to Richarlison.
The Brazilian found Tel on the edge of the box and continued his run, collecting the return pass and fizzing it across goal, but no one was on hand get the final touch.
In the second half Niclas Fullkrug headed over for West Ham while Pape Sarr was inches too high with a fierce drive from the edge of the box.
Bowen almost put the hosts ahead with 10 minutes left but his glancing header was brilliantly clawed away by Vicario, and James Ward-Prowse curled a free-kick just wide in stoppage time.
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