They ate in a private dining room an hour later and one report suggested that two of the unwell players didn't eat the lasagne dish which due to its meat content became suspect #1. As usual, the club informed the hotel of the nutritional requirements, (the hotel was one the club has used for matches in East London before). The menu was understood to have included potatoes, pasta (lasagne), salmon and salad.
By the early hours of Sunday morning, several players were vomiting. The worst casualties were Michael Carrick and Michael Dawson, the latter could barely stand up, even though he played the full 90 minutes once he got out on the pitch. There's been conflicting reports as to whether or not Paul Robinson fell ill.
Edgar Davids, Teemu Tainio and Aaron Lennon soon joined the list of casualties. Martin Jol was also feeling a bit queasy, which might have been at the prospect of losing Carrick and Dawson for a game of such huge importance.
No other hotel residents complained of feeling ill.
At 11am Carl Gray, Tottenham's chef informed the hotel of the players' illness and then he telephoned the police.
Police arrived at the hotel at 1pm. They were worried about fans drinking excessively so agreed to delaying the kick-off by two hours, but Tottenham felt that was of no benefit. They believed that it should have been the Premier League's decision and that postponing the match by a day seemed the sensible option. Spurs claimed West Ham had agreed to that.
The hotel has provided samples of the food to police for testing. Tottenham also informed the Health Protection Agency and Tower Hamlets Environmental Health.
Hotel manager Paul Downing who declined to reveal what the players had eaten, said: "We started an immediate investigation (headed by Karolina Plochocka, the director of food and beverage) once I was informed that some of the players had become ill."
The club contacted the Premier League to ask for the match to be delayed by 24 hours but were told that was not going to be possible. One of the England doctors had joined Premier League officials at the hotel to examine the players.
A Premier League spokesman said: "Tottenham Hotspur took the decision that a two-hour delay would have no material medical benefit for those players affected and accordingly decided to fulfil the fixture at the original 3pm kick-off time."
Jol told the official site: "I don't think the match should have gone ahead. We asked the Premier League to postpone the game for 24 hours. But we were told it was not possible. We had 10 players in bed and then asked if a six-hour delay was possible. Again, that was refused. The Premier League told us one hour was the most that could be done."
"We would like to have postponed the match for one day, but that wasn't really possible. West Ham are playing in the FA Cup final next week, they didn't want to postpone the match and I understood why." (Daily Telegraph)
A postponement would also have caused problems with Tottenham and Arsenal expected to kick-off at the same time on the final day of the season.
Jol who was hit by the bug, along with his assistant Chris Hughton claimed some of the players were still vomiting in the dressing room minutes before going out on to the pitch. But he ruled out an appeal against the Premier League's decision that the game had to go ahead.
Players KO'd: Michael Carrick (started), Michael Dawson (started), Edgar Davids (started), Robbie Keane (started), Radek Cerny (bench), Tom Huddlestone (omitted), Lee Bernard (bench), Calum Davenport (bench), Teemu Tainio (started), Aaron Lennon (started)
Players confirmed OK: Paul Robinson (started), Stephen Kelly (started), Anthony Gardner (started), Jermain Defoe (started)
Jol told the official website: "In the team meeting everyone said 'gaffer, we want to go over there and we want to play' and that they would try the warm-up and if that went okay, they would play. We went out for the warm-up and our fans were great which made the lads feel a bit stronger but they needed fluids and food - a couple of the guys hadn't eaten since Saturday. They came back into the dressing room and we made the decision to play."
The players gave blood and urine tests after the match. They were also tested by police at the hotel before travelling to Upton Park and even answered questions whilst on the coach.
A hotel spokesman said: "Members of our staff answered (police) questions and we have co-operated fully."
Spurs today denied that an emergency board meeting had been called to discuss possible legal action against either the hotel or the Premier League.