Andre Villas-Boas wants Tottenham Hotspur reaction

Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas has urged his side to "bounce back" and reassert their hopes of a top-four spot to secure a Champions League place.

Spurs dropped a place to fourth after being beaten 1-0 by Fulham as they lost three games in a row.

"We want to do better," said Villas-Boas. "We had a 12-game unbeaten run that will inspire us to come back.

"We know that three defeats is something heavy and we have to find the ability to bounce back."

Tottenham suffered a Premier League defeat at Liverpool last Sunday and lost at Inter Milan in the Europa League on Thursday, although they went through to the quarter-finals of the competition on away goals after being taken to extra-time.

The game in Italy appeared to have had a detrimental impact as they looked jaded against Fulham, who won courtesy of a Dimitar Berbatov goal.

It left Spurs just four points ahead of fifth-placed Arsenal and six in front of Everton, with both their rivals having a game in hand. Chelsea beat West Ham on Sunday to leapfrog Tottenham into third.

"It changes the picture now," said Villas-Boas. "We still have some important fixtures against Manchester City and Chelsea and we recognise that the gap that we bridged before is probably going to be shorter.

"We need to continue to move forward because it was our [12-game unbeaten] run before which got us in this position."

Tottenham struggled for creativity against Fulham, although Villas-Boas insisted that was not because of tiredness as his side lost at home for the first time since 3 November.

"I don't think it was a question of fatigue," he said. "We couldn't play our football as well as we have been doing at home recently.

"We couldn't create as many chances as usual and then when Fulham got the first goal they closed down the spaces very well and made it very hard for us.

"Everybody is a bit disappointed."