London, April 21 (IANS) West Ham United inched two points clear of the Premier League’s bottom three after a goalless draw at Crystal Palace, as Wolverhampton Wanderers’ relegation was confirmed.

West Ham sit 17th, on 33 points, and bottom club Wolves are now mathematically certain to drop to the Championship, while Palace are 13th on 43 points.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side knew a victory would open up a four-point buffer to rivals Tottenham Hotspur, but they had to settle for a draw after a tight contest at Selhurst Park.

Both sides passed up decent chances in the first half, with Brennan Johnson wayward on two occasions for Palace and Dean Henderson making one excellent save to deny Konstantinos Mavropanos at the other end, Premier League reports.

Palace thought they had opened the scoring when Ismaila Sarr finished on the swivel in the 82nd minute, but that goal was disallowed due to a handball by fellow substitute Jean-Philippe Mateta in the build-up.

Johnson should have done better when he planted a header wide from Jefferson Lerma’s cross, and the former Spurs man curled wide from distance soon afterwards.

Axel Disasi’s blushes were spared by the offside flag when he skewed over, then West Ham squandered two big chances to take a lead into half-time.

Maxence Lacroix made a vital block in front of his own line after Henderson’s mistimed punch set up Valentin Castellanos for an overhead kick, before the Palace goalkeeper repelled a thumping header from Mavropanos.

West Ham continued to do most of the attacking after the interval, but they saw muted claims for a penalty waved away when Castellanos bustled his way past Jaydee Canvot and went down easily.

Mateta and Sarr were introduced from the bench as Oliver Glasner shuffled his pack, and it looked as though they had combined for a late winner.

However, referee Darren England ruled Mateta had diverted the ball towards his team-mate using his arm, and the decision to disallow the goal stood after a VAR review.

–IANS

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