Spurs still fighting, says Pochettino after crushing West Ham loss

Chelsea could be Premier League champions before Tottenham next take to the field after Mauricio Pochettino's men lost at West Ham.

Mauricio Pochettino insists Tottenham will still fight to win the Premier League despite West Ham leaving their title hopes in tatters.

Manuel Lanzini's 65th-minute goal sealed a 1-0 win for the host at London Stadium and put Chelsea on the brink of glory.

Antonio Conte's men are in action twice before Spurs play again and, if it beats Middlesbrough and West Brom, it will be champions before Pochettino's side return to action next Sunday at home to Manchester United.

"We're still fighting, we're disappointed with the result," Pochettino told Sky Sports.

"Now we must wait for the Chelsea result and then there are three games ahead to play.

"I think you all know that now it is more difficult to try to catch Chelsea. But we need to try – always to the end, always."

Pochettino felt Spurs was unfortunate to lose but conceded it failed to reach the levels it displayed in last weekend's authoritative 2-0 north London derby win over Arsenal.

"I think in the first half we dominated but created few clear chances to score," he said.

"We deserved more. In the second half we started a little bit sloppy and conceded more space to them

"When you are fighting for the title you cannot concede those type of goals. Then they played deeper with 5-4-1 and it was difficult to find the space.

"We were a little but unlucky, I don't think we deserved to lose but we lost.

"It was a difficult game, it's true that if you compare it with five days ago against Arsenal it was not the same performance that we played last week.

"All the players are disappointed about that. Sometimes in football that situation happens. Now we must try to be ready for the next game."

Having mounted a sustained challenge in vain to Leicester City last season, Spurs finds itself in a familiar but unwelcome position.

But its manager rejected the notion that a team who had nine Premier League wins in succession to its name before facing West Ham had buckled under pressure.

"In football there are a lot of topics that make me laugh," Pochettino added. "We arrived at West Ham after nine games in a row.

"I have listened about that [pressure] for many, many weeks. Maybe when you lose it is because of the pressure or a bad performance.

"You can find many reasons why we lose. The reality is we didn't score."