West Ham United on Monday maintained their surprise challenge for a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League, as Michail Antonio scored twice to beat Burnley 2-1.
Chris Wood’s penalty opened the scoring for the Clarets, but Burnley failed to guarantee their English Premier League survival for another season as Antonio struck twice in eight minutes.
The Hammers move into fifth, just three points adrift of Chelsea, who have to travel to runaway leaders Manchester City next weekend.
West Ham, by contrast, have a favorable run in with Everton, Brighton & Hove Albion, West Bromwich Albion and Southampton to come in their final four games of the campaign.
“I’m hoping with four games to go, people still talk about us and the Champions League. We want to take it down to the final day and try to sneak in,” West Ham manager David Moyes told BBC Sport. “It will probably need us to win all four games. Europe would be an incredible achievement. I think I’ll be disappointed if we don’t get there now.”
The return of Antonio from injury could prove the decisive factor for Moyes’ men, who were battling for survival at this stage last season.
The Jamaican missed back-to-back defeats by Newcastle United and Chelsea that had rocked West Ham’s bid to finish in the top four.
Another slow start saw them fall behind again when Wood was upended by Tomas Soucek and the New Zealander confidently stroked home the penalty.
However, Burnley were guilty of uncharacteristic mistakes in defending crosses into their box.
Antonio outmuscled Matt Lowton to head home Vladimir Coufal’s cross on 21 minutes.
Moments later, he tapped in at the back post from Said Benrahma’s low-ball into the box.
At the other end of the table, West Brom are set for a return to the EFL Championship after just one season back in the Premier League as a 1-1 draw at home to Wolves all but ended their chances of survival.
Manager Sam Allardyce’s men are now 10 points from safety with just 12 left to play for in the final four games of the season.
The former England manager has never previously been relegated from the top flight, but the Baggies have won just four of his 22 games in charge since replacing the sacked Slaven Bilic in December last year.
“We owe it to everyone to keep a professional attitude and go out and try to win every game we’ve got left and hope every team above us loses every game and then, by some magic miracle and some fairy dust, we stay up,” Allardyce said.
One of those victories was away to Wolves in the Black Country derby in January.
However, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side gained some measure of revenge by denying West Brom hope of beating the drop.
Both sides battled horrendous playing conditions under heavy rain and luck also deserted West Brom in first-half stoppage time when Kyle Bartley’s attempted clearance ricocheted off Fabio Silva and into the net to give Wolves the lead.
Mbaye Diagne leveled on 62 minutes when he headed in Conor Townsend’s cross, but West Brom could not find the winner they desperately needed and remain second from the bottom of the table.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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