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LONDON: West Ham United’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford offered Tottenham Hotspur a lifeline in the battle for Premier League survival on Saturday.
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.
Meanwhile, Newcastle United eased any lingering fears of being drawn into the relegation battle with a 3-1 win over Brighton and Hove Albion 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 Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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.
Ballard was sent off for pulling the hair of Tolu Arokodare. Ballard became the second player to penalised for the offence as Everton’s Michael Keane received a straight red for the same misdeed in January.
Santiago Bueno levelled but Wolves could not muster just a fourth league win of the season.
On Friday, Leeds United all but secured their place in the Premier League next season with a 3-1 win over already-relegated Burnley.
Goals from Anton Stach, Noah Okafor and Dominic Calvert-Lewin took Daniel Farke’s side nine points clear of the relegation zone with just four games remaining for those below them.
IPSWICH PROMOTED
Meanwhilel, Ipswich Town returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking as a 3-0 victory over visiting Queens Park Rangers on the final day of the regular Championship season on Saturday ensured they took the second automatic promotion slot.
Wrexham’s fairytale rise through the divisions was halted though as a 2-2 draw at home to Middlesbrough cost them a place in the promotion playoffs, which was taken by Hull City.
Ipswich needed a victory to make certain of finishing runners-up to Coventry City and early goals by George Hirst and Jaden Philogene settled any nerves at Portman Road.
The celebrations had already started by the time Kasey McAteer wrapped up the points late on.
Millwall and Middlesbrough also went into the final day with automatic promotion chances if Ipswich slipped up.
Millwall beat relegated Oxford United 2-0 to secure third place a point behind Ipswich, while Middlesbrough drew 2-2 at Wrexham — a result that meant the Welsh club’s hopes of a fourth straight promotion ended as they finished seventh.
A draw could have been enough for Wrexham but Hull’s 2-1 win against visitors Norwich City — their first win in seven league games — meant they finished two points above them in sixth.
Derby County had also been in with a chance of grabbing the final playoff place on a nerve-wracking finale to the season but lost 2-1 at home to Sheffield United having been in front.
Hull will face Millwall in the two-legged playoff semi-finals starting on May 8, with Middlesbrough up against in-form Southampton who finished fourth, level on 80 points with Boro.
Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2026
