LONDON: Fulham squandered an opportunity to escape the Premier League relegation zone on Saturday after going down 3-1 at London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Felix Magath’s improving side had won their two previous games and they reacted impressively after falling behind to a close-range Paulinho strike in the 35th minute, with Steve Sidwell equalising almost immediately.

However, second-half goals from Harry Kane and Younes Kaboul secured victory for Tim Sherwood’s Spurs, with Sidwell seeing a late penalty saved by Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

Defeat left Fulham two points from safety, ahead of a home game with Hull City next weekend.

Sixth-place Spurs closed to within four points of the Champions League places, although they have played a game more than both fourth-place Arsenal and fifth-place Everton.

Fulham slipped one place to 19th after Cardiff City moved above them on goal difference by drawing 1-1 at home to Stoke City.

Marko Arnautovic gave Stoke the lead from the penalty spot in first-half injury time after Kim Bo-kyung was contentiously adjudged to have tripped Peter Odemwingie.

However, Peter Whittingham equalised with a penalty of his own after Steven Nzonzi tripped Fraizer Campbell, and Cardiff might even have won, only for a Juan Cala effort to be ruled out for offside.

Elsewhere, an ice-cool stoppage-time penalty by Wilfried Bony gave Swansea City a 2-1 victory at Newcastle United that took the Welsh club six points clear of the relegation zone.

Bony had earlier scored with a header to cancel out Shola Ameobi’s 23rd-minute opener for the home side.

Aston Villa spurned a chance to put clear daylight between themselves and the bottom three after being held to a 0-0 draw at home to Southampton that left Paul Lambert’s side five points above the drop zone.

In the day’s other fixture, a 59th-minute Mile Jedinak penalty saw Crystal Palace win 1-0 at West Ham United, completing a sequence of five successive top-flight wins for the first time since December 1992.—AFP