Sunday 25 September 2016 19:42, UK
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic says his side did not deserve anything from their 3-0 defeat to Southampton on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers were condemned to their fourth consecutive loss in the Premier League, with the in-form Charlie Austin opening the scoring for the Saints in the 40th minute.
Dusan Tadic added the second just after the hour mark at the London Stadium before James Ward-Prowse rounded off the scoring in the second minute of injury time to see West Ham suffer their fifth loss in their opening six top-flight games for the first time in their history.
Bilic was sure his side had done their best during the game, but said Southampton were the worthy winners and his players were not good enough on the day.
"We didn't deserve anything, we deserved to be defeated here," the Hammers boss told Sky Sports.
"The first half was OK. We were compact and solid until the goal and in the second half, they were just better than us. We put some pressure on at 2-0 and we had a couple of chances but we missed the target and they were very dangerous on the counter-attack. They won deservedly.
"If we go one-by-one, they've done everything but it was not enough. We weren't closing them down, they had the space to get the ball, they had the space to do the combinations, they were switching sides and we were too far away.
"I'm sure individually they gave everything they could and they ran but it was no good, simple.
"We are in a really bad spell now. We are a team that is expecting something to happen by default. We don't have the confidence and it's a chain reaction then. You become stiff and you are not close enough to the opponents."
The Croat will now be looking for more ways to turn around the fortunes of his side, and is hoping the squad can stick together to overcome the current poor spell.
"It is hard to change it," added Bilic. "The team is down. We had good weeks in training but when the game comes, it's simply not good enough.
"We have to work hard and everything but it is not happening at the moment and it's not just one game, it's since the Bournemouth game to be fair and it's now four games in a row in the Premier League.
"It's not a magic wand thing. You need to work hard and you need one good result, but for that good result, you have to play well and we are not the first or the last team that is having that spell in the Premier League or any top level of football. All you can do is stick together and work hard.
"It is about going back to basics, but we have already tried it. We're doing them in training and we are talking about them.
"In the first half, we didn't create a lot, we were not happy with the way we played when we had the ball in the last third of the pitch but at least we were solid and they didn't have chances. So we are down to the basics - but it's not happening at the moment."
West Ham will look to get back on track and climb out of the drop zone when they host Middlesbrough on Saturday.
