West Ham news: Nuno Espirito Santo gives honest verdict on Tottenham defeat, Premier League relegation battle

West Ham United head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has given his honest verdict on Tottenham Hotspur’s latest Premier League defeat and the battle both teams face to avoid relegation.

The unthinkable prospect of Spurs playing in the Championship next season is real, and their chaotic descent towards the Premier League’s bottom three continued on Thursday night as they suffered a damaging 3-1 home defeat with 10 men against Crystal Palace.

Interim boss Igor Tudor has lost all three of his games in charge of the North Londoners, who are the only Premier League team yet to win a single game in 2026.

No team has picked up fewer points across the last 10 Premier League games than Spurs (three), who currently sit 16th in the table and just one point behind West Ham in 18th spot.

In contrast, West Ham have shown plenty of fight across their last 10 league matches, collecting 14 points and most recently beating Fulham 1-0 at Craven Cottage on Wednesday.

Nuno keen to “avoid setbacks” in West Ham’s PL survival quest

Discussing his side's improving form at a press conference on Friday, Nuno said: "It wasn't me, it was the players. The players have been able to improve our game. The results are helping, so is the atmosphere and the mood, it is all much better."

Asked how his side have bounced back from poor results, he added: "I think being able to react well every time is not possible, but to bounce back from poor performances is always important, especially in the fight we are involved in.

"We saw against Fulham that the players reacted pretty well after (losing 5-2 to) Liverpool, after which we had a good performance and good results so I hope it continues. What we really need to consider is how to avoid setbacks."

Nuno has acknowledged that he did watch “some moments” of Tottenham’s defeat to Crystal Palace, but stressed that the result does not affect West Ham’s approach to avoiding the drop and concentrating solely on their own games is what matters.

The Portuguese spent less than five months in charge of Spurs and won eight of his 17 games at the helm before he was sacked in November 2021.

‘Tottenham defeat doesn't mean anything to us’, says Nuno

"We see all the games. What we know is that we cannot influence anything,” said Nuno. “We are just spectators, so it doesn't mean anything for us. We are still in the same situation. We have a lot of work in front of us.

"I watched some moments. What I watch at home is not important. I'm trying to tell you that we watch all of the matches but we know that it's all about us. We cannot control anything that happens in other stadiums. We can influence in our games, and this is our main focus."

Nuno’s primary focus at present is the FA Cup, as his West Ham side prepare to face Brentford at the London Stadium in the fifth round of the competition on Monday night.

Providing a fresh update on the fitness of his squad, Nuno said: “We’re still assessing [Pablo Felipe] day by day. He’s improving a lot, so we’ll keep assessing him, and see how it goes.

“We have to assess all the players, you know how it goes. It was a tough game [at Fulham], so we have to recover, assess and then prepare to go again, in a game we are all looking forward to.”

West Ham, who have lost their last two encounters with Brentford without reply, are looking to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since the 2015-16 campaign.