West Ham Shock Tottenham At Home 0-1
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino said his side were suffering from “stress and fatigue” after they slipped to defeat at home to West Ham in the Premier League.
Spurs face Ajax in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday, their eighth game in April.
“The stress and the fatigue arrived. We are competing with circumstances that are not the best,” Pochettino said.
“We arrived for this game in a different condition and that was an important factor in the second half. It was really tough today.
“We cannot say now we were thinking about Tuesday.
“We wanted to win the three points to be in our position and arrive to the Champions League game in a very good mood and way, but it wasn’t and now we need to move on.”
Top four will be fight to the end – Pochettino
Third-placed Spurs had won all four of their games since moving into Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this month.
Antonio’s goal in the 67th minute was the first they had conceded at home since moving into their new stadium and means they are not yet certain of finishing in the top four and securing Champions League football next season.
Victory ended a run of four games without a win for West Ham, who remain 11th in the table with two games to play this season.
They finished strongly, with Antonio and defender Issa Diop forcing Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris into saves in the closing stages, although West Ham’s Fabian Balbuena cleared a Vincent Janssen header off the line in stoppage time.
Spurs’ prolonged wait to play in their rebuilt home was worth the wait before West Ham’s visit, with three league wins and a 1-0 victory over Manchester City in the first leg of their epic Champions League quarter-final.
But there had been signs of strain when they struggled to overcome relegation-threatened Brighton in their previous match.
Pochettino made four changes to the side that played Brighton but, after a good start, his players appeared to run out of steam.
Son Heung-min’s low strike forced West Ham keeper Lucasz Fabianski into a save at his near post, while a Lucas Moura shot zipped across the face of goal before half-time.
Christian Eriksen also forced Fabianski into action, this time with his feet, but West Ham were happy to counter-attack from the outset.
“We did not manage the ball properly,” Pochettino said. “It was a difficult game but in the second half we conceded a lot of space for them to counter-attack.
“The first half was good but we lost the ball too easily in the second half.”
West Ham were the better side after the break, and the game was deep into stoppage time when substitute Janssen almost earned Spurs a point.
With Spurs playing 24 hours before Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United – all of whom are vying for a place in the top four – Pochettino said, “It is a fight, it is a race, with two games to play. We knew that before.”
