Pereira at the double as Fulham down West Ham

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Andreas Pereira scored twice as Fulham won 2-0 away to West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday to inflict fresh damage on their London rivals' hopes of European football.

This defeat for West Ham came hot on the heels of a 2-0 loss to Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday, leaving them with a tough task in the return tie.

And Sunday's reverse meant the Hammers missed the chance to go up to sixth in the Premier League and into contention for a European place next season.

For Fulham, having won the reverse fixture 5-0 at Craven Cottage in December, victory gave them a first league double over West Ham since 1966. 

West Ham should have gone ahead in the opening moments when full-back Vladimir Coufal burst into the area and latched onto Lucas Paqueta's ball over the top.

Coufal's initial effort was blocked by Bernd Leno and when the ball rebounded to Michail Antonio, the striker blazed over from eight yards.

West Ham looked the more threatening side early on, but it was Fulham who opened the scoring in the ninth minute with their first attack of the game.

The Hammers' Konstantinos Mavropanos tried to bring down a deep cross from Alex Iwobi but succeeded only in gifting the ball to Pereira, who was given a free run by Nayef Aguerd.

That left the Brazilian with the simple task of taking the ball past Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski and shooting into an empty net.

In the second half, Fabianski did well to tip Alex Iwobi's shot wide but he could do nothing to stop Pereira doubling Fulham's lead in the 72nd minute.

Paqueta was dispossessed in midfield by Joao Palhinha and Pereira laid the ball off to Rodrigo Muniz. 

He played in Iwobi, and his cross found Pereira, who made no mistake with a simple finish.

Defeat for West Ham was made worse when teenage substitute George Earthy was carried off on a stretcher after suffering a serious head injury in a collision with team-mate Edson Alvarez, just two minutes into his Premier League debut.