West Ham have presented Tottenham with the opportunity to climb out of the Premier League relegation zone after suffering a damaging 3-0 defeat at Brentford.
Konstantinos Mavropanos' own goal, Igor Thaigo's penalty and Mikkel Damsgaard's late third has kept West Ham just two points above Spurs, who now know a victory at Aston Villa on Sunday will move them out of the bottom three.
West Ham hit the woodwork four times, had an equaliser ruled out by VAR and failed to score from 13 shots on a luckless day in west London in which their three-game unbeaten run came to an end and increased their relegation worries.
Meanwhile, Brentford earned their first win in seven matches to strengthen their European bid, moving up to sixth and three points above ninth-placed Chelsea ahead of their home game against Nottingham Forest on Monday at 3pm, live on Your Site.
A breathless first-half began with Dango Ouattara's shot whistling wide inside 30 seconds before West Ham's Pablo was denied by Caoimhin Kelleher when through on goal.
Mavropanos then turned into his own net in the 15th minute after Michael Kayode had forced the ball against the right post from Keane Lewis-Potter's cross. The goal was given despite Kayode's lunge on Mavropanos which forced the centre-back to stay down during the celebrations.
West Ham responded well with Taty Castellanos sending a low shot against the woodwork before Mavropanos appeared to have made up for his error, heading in El Hadji Malick Diouf's free-kick only for the goal to be ruled out for offside by VAR.
Brentford should have doubled their lead when goalkeeper Mads Hermansen was caught stranded out of his area after sweeping up a ball in behind, with Damsgaard missing an open goal from the edge of the area.
The chances kept coming with Thiago's dink held by Hermansen while Castellanos sent a second effort against the woodwork, glancing Jarrod Bowen's corner against the left post.
There was still time for Sepp van den Berg to send a header narrowly wide from Kayode's long throw and for Castellanos' swerving, long-range piledriver to be pushed over by Kelleher.
The second half was less dramatic once Thiago had slotted home his 22nd Premier League goal of the season. Diouf needlessly and recklessly slid in on Ouattara inside the area and Thiago coolly tucked in the spot kick with the visitors unable to respond.
West Ham's afternoon was compounded when Crysencio Summerville's curling shot hit the crossbar with Tomas Soucek's follow-up clipping the post before Damsgaard wrapped up the victory with a low shot that nestled in the bottom right corner.
West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo said:
"First half was really good, really positive. We concede from a cross, but we react well, we played well, the game was flowing. We were in control; we created a lot of situations. At half-time we were positive that the game was going to change and things would come to our side. But overall, it's a tough day for us.
On penalty: "He (Diouf) should have avoided it, but Ouattara is a very good winger, so it's hard to defend against him," said Nuno.
"But it's not about that; it's how we were not able to react. It's happened before when we are two goals down and today it didn't happen.
"Recently, we've been able to always react from a setback during the game. Today was not so.
"Among many things that we have to rectify for the next one, the reaction to setbacks is basically we cannot give up. We've proven ourselves that it's not allowed."
West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen to Your Site:
"You have to react in the right way. It's going to hurt today because we had good opportunities. But what we have to do now is focus on the next games. We have three games left and every one is a cup final.
"There's so much on the line. We can't let the last few weeks go away because of this result today. On another day, we would have got the win today. We've done a lot of good things.
"Everyone has to stick together, as cliché as it sounds. We've got a really good group. It's down to the senior players to stand up. We can't dwell on this. We have to move forward because there's no other way."
Brentford boss Keith Andrews said:
"I feel like it's been coming, but equally, you need to stay on top of the performance levels. I think the big one today was just finding a way to win. I think that was really important.
"First half was a little bit helter-skelter at times. I felt like the opportunities they created, some of which were our own doing, that's on the second half we managed the game better. So overall, it's a good day for us.
"We're in a good place. Clearly, six or three games to go is not a bad position to be in. We should enjoy that.
"We should embrace that. Let's just keep pushing for the last three games and see where that brings us."
