Tired Spurs stunned by Hammers

Mauricio Pochettino admitted Tottenham are suffering from fatigue after Michail Antonio fired West Ham to a 1-0 victory yesterday, while Cardiff’s 1-0 loss at Fulham leaves them in severe danger of relegation from the Premier League. Pochettino’s side had won all four matches at their new £1 billion Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

But Antonio’s clinical second-half strike ended that run as the West Ham winger became the first visiting player to score in the plush arena and condemn Spurs to their 12th league loss of the season. Third-placed Tottenham’s second defeat in their last three Premier League games put a dent in their bid to finish in the top four.

They hold a three-point lead over fourth-placed Chelsea and are four points ahead of fifth-placed Arsenal, with both teams in action on Sunday. It was a frustrating warmup for Tottenham’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Ajax in north London on Tuesday. Blaming Tottenham’s hectic fixture list for their defeat, Pochettino said: “We cannot put away the circumstances. They arrived fresh and ready to compete, for us it is completely different.

“We were tired. We knew that it was going to be tough because it was a derby, but we have to move on. “It was really tough today. We did not manage the ball properly. In the second half, we conceded a lot of space for them to counter-attack.” Conceding that Tottenham had hurt their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League, Pochettino added: “It is a fight, it is a race, with two games to play. We knew that before.”

Third-bottom Cardiff is four points from safety with just two games left after the fourth bottom Brighton drew 1-1 with Newcastle. Ayoze Perez fired Newcastle in front after 18 minutes, but Brighton improved after a woeful first half at the Amex Stadium. Pascal Gross met Glenn Murray’s flick to head the vital equalizer from close-range in the 75th minute.