Man City beats West Ham 2-1 to stay 4th

Manchester City grabbed a nervous 2-1 victory over West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday, strengthening its chances of a Champions League place next season while increasing relegation worries for Avram Grant's team.

Fourth-place City now holds a seven-point advantage over Liverpool in fifth after goals from Nigel de Jong and an own goal from Lars Jacobsen set them on their way.

Demba Ba pulled one back but West Ham slipped to a fifth straight loss and remains bottom, three points adrift of 17th place.

City hosts Tottenham on May 10 in a game that was earlier billed as deciding who would finish fourth but City has built a seven-point cushion over Harry Redknapp's sixth-place team in recent weeks.

City will guarantee a top-four finish - and Champions League spot - by winning two of its remaining four matches and also plays Stoke in the FA Cup final on May 14.

''All the season we've stayed between first and fourth and we deserve to go in the Champions League but we have another four games, it's not finished,'' Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini said. ''Our target at the start of the season was the Champions League and now we are in fourth.''

Buoyed by Tottenham's 2-1 defeat at Chelsea on Saturday, City wasted little time in opening up an advantage against West Ham.

Adam Johnson had already caused problems for Danny Gabbidon, playing out of position at left back, before the hosts scored after nine minutes.

Aleksander Kolarov's corner was only cleared to the edge of the area by Jonathan Spector and De Jong found the corner of the net with a powerful 20-meter (yard) shot.

It was the Dutchman's first goal for the club, after arriving from Hamburg in January 2009, and his first club goal since Hamburg's 4-1 win over Frankfurt in March 2008.

West Ham's task grew even harder when Pablo Zabaleta surged on to David Silva's pass and crossed towards Mario Balotelli at the far post, only for Jacobsen to touch into his own net in the 15th.

City continued to press forward and West Ham took another blow when Matthew Upson was forced off with injury in the 26th minute.

The Hammers wasted a clear chance to equalize when Spector slid a pass through for Robbie Keane and the Republic of Ireland international could only shoot straight at City goalkeeper Joe Hart.

In the 33rd, Thomas Hitzlsperger's cross appeared to hit Joleon Lescott's arm before Ba made the most of the advantage to score from close range.

De Jong was replaced by James Milner at half time and Balotelli almost scored a third for City, seeing his powerful shot come back off the crossbar in the 55th.

Hart pulled off a fine block to deny Da Costa and, after a quick City counter attack, Balotelli was denied by a clearance from James Tomkins on the line.

Silva also passed up a good chance to seal the victory, failing to test Green when he was found by Kolarov's cross.

Spain international Silva had another effort tipped over by Green in the closing stages as City finished strongly.

West Ham hosts Blackburn on May 7 before travelling to Wigan and then playing Sunderland at home on May 22, the final day of the season.

Grant remains optimistic his team can avoid the drop.

''I think we will need between seven and nine points (more),'' Grant said. ''Now we have to get the points, it doesn't matter how.''