Leeds United\u2019s victory over Burnley has all but secured their safety and, combined with Nottingham Forest\u2019s improved displays since Vitor Pereira took charge, has left Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United to contest survival over the last three weeks of the season.<\/p>\n
Tottenham\u2019s 2\u20131 win over Aston Villa was decisive. The result lifted Roberto De Zerbi\u2019s Lilywhites above their London rivals and out of the relegation places. West Ham\u2019s momentum stalled at Brentford at the weekend, which opened the door for Spurs to leapfrog the Hammers.<\/p>\n
That sequence is remarkable given the recent context. Spurs finished 17th last season and the Hammers obviously weren\u2019t going anywhere with Graham Potter in charge, so few foreseen an existential scrap between the pair at this stage.<\/p>\n
The remaining fixtures are straightforward and unforgiving. A favourable result for Arsenal in east London on the weekend of Arsenal v West Ham would alter the dynamic for West Ham and Tottenham. As the draft noted, “Victory for Mikel Arteta\u2019s side in east London would greatly aid their survival bid, especially as they\u2019re hosting a Leeds United team that may be taking their foot off the gas in May, given that they\u2019re pretty much safe.” A West Ham win could, conversely, ease Manchester City\u2019s path to the title while making life harder for Spurs.<\/p>\n
After the Arsenal meeting, Spurs face Chelsea in midweek following Chelsea\u2019s FA Cup final with Manchester City. That fixture will revive memories of the old Battle of the Bridge when late drama reshaped a title race.<\/p>\n
League positions and remaining fixtures<\/p>\n
Tottenham (17th, 37 points)
Leeds (H) \u2013 May 11
Chelsea (A) \u2013 May 19
Everton (H) – May 24<\/p>\n
West Ham (18th, 36 points)
Arsenal (H) \u2013 May 10
Newcastle (A) \u2013 May 17
Leeds (H) – May 24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tottenham’s 2\u20131 win over Aston Villa puts Spurs ahead of West Ham with three decisive fixtures left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,1464],"tags":[1635],"class_list":["post-13608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epl","category-tottenham","tag-survival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}