West Ham's positive unbeaten run came to an end on Saturday afternoon in a performance to forget against relegation strugglers Brighton, losing 3-1. Manager David Moyes argued that his team deserved what they got, failing to warrant any points after a sub standard display.
No points was what we deserved, reflects Moyes
"Today wasn't very good," Moyes said. "Our performance didn't merit a result. Brighton were the better team in the end."
"At half-time we had fought our way back into the game but they scored a worldy to make it 2-1, which made it very difficult. I think prior to that we hadn't done enough anyway."
Former-Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez bagged his sixth Premier League goal of the season for The Hammers to write off an early strike from Glenn Murray inside the opening ten minutes of the tie. However, two terrific second-half goals from Pascal Gross and Jose Izquierdo condemned what has been a dreadful week for West Ham after Tony Henry revealed he wanted to restrict the number of African players the club signed.
"I’m disappointed with the defeat. We’ve been on a really good run recently and we’ve picked up points and we’ve stuck at games. But we were never really in the game today. Right from the start, I never felt it. We gave the first one away, we gave the third one away and, actually, I think we should have dealt with the ball from the corner before the second goal.”
Injury plagued squad no excuse for poor performance
West Ham have suffered a number of high profile injuries in recent weeks, with Marko Arnautovic and Manuel Lanzini the two standout names of an ever increasing pack of players unfit for duty. However, Moyes admited that they can't be used as an excuse for Saturday's loss, with the starting XI posing more than enough quality to carry on the sides positive run of form.
"Maybe to have to play the same team again, could have been the case," Moyes stated when asked about his team selection. "We put out a team on Tuesday and got a result, albeit it wasn't three points, but we got a result from the game."
"It was always going to be tough to do that and I think it showed in the players [against Brighton]. But Brighton played in midweek as well, so there's no excuse from it, and we're not going to look for excuses because we have injured players. Every club has got injured players and the quicker we get them back, it will help us."