It proved honours even at London Stadium where both sides had to settle for a hard-fought point in their quest for European qualification next season.
While the result did little to help either club climb the Premier League table, this richly deserved draw was a huge confidence-booster for West Ham United following their tumultuous, Tyneside trauma on Saturday.
After Brennan Johnson gave Tottenham a fifth-minute lead, a lesser team might have folded but the resilient Hammers fought back to equalise through skipper Kurt Zouma midway through the first half.
Despite seeing his side succumb to a lamentable loss at Newcastle United on Saturday lunchtime, David Moyes had made just one enforced to the team that had somehow contrived to turn a free-wheeling 3-1 lead into a forlorn 4-3 defeat as Łukasz Fabiański took the gloves from injured Alphonse Areola (groin).
That meant that Kalvin Phillips retained his place on the bench in a show of support from his manager following his well-publicised, post-match altercation with the Hammers fans while climbing aboard the team coach at St James’ Park, albeit the on-loan England midfielder would stay in the dug-out for the full duration of this entertaining derby.
With just three minutes on the clock, Jarrod Bowen had the perfect opportunity to put his team's Magpies’ mauling behind them but he could only stab a low, left-wing cross from Mohammed Kudus wide from all of eight yards.
Whereas West Ham had squandered a healthy lead three days earlier, Spurs had come from behind to beat lowly Luton Town at the weekend and, following their 2-1 victory which had seen them arrive in Stratford in fifth spot – two places and a dozen points above the Hammers – Ange Postecoglu made a trio of switches.
In came Johnson, Micky van de Ven and Rodrigo Bentancur as Radu Drãgusin, Pape Matar Sarr and Dejan Kulusevski dropped to the bench.
And just a couple of minutes after Bowen’s miss, the recalled Johnson repaid Postecoglu’s faith in him, when he got in front of Emerson to tap home from just a couple of yards after Destiny Udogie and Bentancur combined to enable the overlapping Timo Werner to deliver the perfect left-wing cut-back.
That was Johnson’s fifth goal since his £50 million summer move from Nottingham Forest and Spurs were soon threatening a second, too.
First, Pedro Porro fired an angled effort just inches beyond the far post, before Son Heung-Min forced Fabiański into a full-length save but - on 19 minutes - the Hammers mustered an equaliser when a right-flank raid by Vladimír Coufal and Bowen led to van de Ven conceding a corner.
Bowen duly deposited the consequent flag-kick into the six-yard box, where Zouma outjumped the luckless van de Ven to nod West Ham level to the delight of the rain-soaked Claret and Blue army.
Parity restored, the Hammers were clearly invigorated by their skipper’s third goal of the season but despite forcing half-a-dozen first-half corners and seeing the flying Guglielmo Vicario beat away James Ward-Prowse’s goalbound, 25-yard free-kick, the opening 45 minutes were destined to finish all square.
Seconds after the restart, Vicario clawed aside Michail Antonio’s sizzling 18-yarder that fizzed through the damp, drizzly Stratford air, before Lucas Paquetá collected from Bowen, ahead of controlling and whipping a whisker wide of the left angle from similar range.
In reply, Coufal bravely charged down James Maddison’s point-blank shot while Johnson sent a right-wing ball across the face of goal but - fortunately for West Ham - there were no white shirts on hand to convert.
Having seen the time-wasting van de Ven booked for nudging the ball away from his grasp in the first half, Antonio was then cautioned for a late challenge on Bentancur and more angst followed for the Hammers striker on the hour mark.
With the home defence thwarting a Spurs move on the edge of the area, the eagle-eyed Ward-Prowse spotted Antonio’s break from the centre circle and, although the linesman’s flag stayed down, the slip-sliding Jamaica international fluffed his lines as the lone figure of Vicario gratefully held the final shot.
That was the cue for Postecoglu to look towards his bench as Sarr and Kulusevski replaced Maddison and Bentancur, who had earlier been booked for tripping the escaping Kudus.
Johnson also saw yellow for an identical offence on the 32-cap Ghanaian flying machine but by now it had become a battle of wills with the Hammers defence sitting deep and yielding 70 per cent possession, while Moyes boys sought to break quickly using the craft of Paquetá and the pace of Antonio, Kudus and Bowen.
Richarlison and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg also entered the fray at the expense of Yves Bissouma and Werner and, indeed, both sides could have snatched all three points in a breathless, final few seconds.
First, the well-positioned Fabiański saved Sarr’s low 12-yarder to deny Spurs a winner before the Hammers broke upfield, where Bowen’s lofted ball across goal failed to find any clinical Claret and Blue studs and that meant both sides finished the evening exactly where they had started, in fifth and seventh spot respectively.
West Ham United: Fabiański, Coufal, Emerson, Zouma, Mavropanos, Souček, Ward-Prowse, Kudus, Paquetá, Bowen, Antonio. Unused subs: Anang, Johnson, Cresswell, Phillips, Cornet, Ings, Ogbonna, Earthy, Mubama.
Tottenham: Vicario, Porro, Udogie, Romero, van de Ven, Bentancur (Sarr 70), Bissouma (Højbjerg 82), Maddison (Kulusevski 70), Werner (Richarlison 82), Johnson (Lo Celso 90), Son. Unused subs: Austin, Drãgusin, Royal, Davies.
Booked: van de Ven (44), Antonio (53), Bentancur (61), Johnson (74), Højbjerg (89).
Referee: John Brooks.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here