The Japan Times - West Ham defeat gives Spurs hope, Arsenal face Fulham test

Spurs remain in the relegation zone, two points from safety, but can move out of the bottom three with victory at Aston Villa on Sunday after the Hammers succumbed to just their third defeat in 11 league games.

Brentford boosted their chances of European qualification for the first time with a first win in eight matches.

Konstantinos Mavropanos was left to rue his luck in two key first-half incidents.

The Greek defender was unfortunate not to be awarded a free-kick as he turned the ball into his own net to open the scoring.

Mavropanos thought he had made amends moments later with a bullet header, but was ruled marginally offside by a VAR review.

Brentford had another call go in their favour early in the second half when Dango Ouattara won a penalty and Igor Thiago coolly converted his 22nd Premier League goal of the season.

Mikkel Damsgaard's strike rounded off a damaging day for West Ham, who face title-chasing Arsenal next weekend.

Brentford move up to sixth, which could be enough to secure Champions League qualification.

Newcastle eased any lingering fears of being drawn into the relegation battle with a 3-1 win over Brighton to end a five-game losing streak.

William Osula and Dan Burn scored in the opening 24 minutes as Newcastle edged up to 13th.

Jack Hinshelwood pulled a goal back, but defeat could prove costly to Brighton's European ambitions as having started the weekend in sixth, they could end it outside the top half.

Harvey Barnes rounded off the scoring in stoppage time to bring some relief to the under-fire Eddie Howe.

Sunderland's bid for Europe was also dented by a 1-1 draw at bottom-of-the-table Wolves.

Nordi Mukiele put the Black Cats in front early on, but Sunderland played for over an hour a man down after a red card for Dan Ballard.

Santiago Bueno levelled but Wolves could not muster just a fourth league win of the season.

Arsenal's quest for a first league title in 22 years takes centre stage at the Emirates later, but Fulham are also in the hunt for a place in Europe.

The Gunners, who have finished second for the past three seasons, can open up a six-point lead at the top but will have played two more games than Manchester City.

Arsenal are able to welcome back Bukayo Saka for his first start in six weeks, but captain Martin Odegaard misses out through injury as Mikel Arteta makes five changes to the side that started away to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals in midweek.

T.Ikeda--JT