Hammers gaffer David Moyes readily admitted West Ham had only themselves to blame for letting themselves down in slumping to a horrific 4-0 defeat at Brighton.
West Ham are now winless in 11 away matches in the Premier League and are still lurking perilously close to the relegation zone after a really limpid display as they were yet again afflicted by yet another case of the curse of Brighton for the Hammers – Moyes’ side go on record as never ever having beaten the Seagulls in the Premier League and again departed the Amex Stadium totally demoralised in their 12th attempt.
This latest defeat had nothing to do with ill-luck or curses. The defeat was inflicted courtesy of a penalty from Alexis Mac Allister, well-timed tap-ins for Joel Veltman and Kaoru Mitoma and a late strike from Danny Welbeck that resulted in West Ham’s heaviest defeat since a 5-0 home bombardment by Manchester City in August 2019.
“It wasn’t good. We’ve not played well today, we let ourselves down,’ said Hammers boss Moyes.
“We were always coming to play a team that would have a lot of possession so we knew we’d find ourselves having to give up a bit more than we would normally do.
“We had a couple of really good chances to equalise in the first half and didn’t take them. We went in 1-0 down, it was really disappointing. We hoped we’d come out and play better in the second half and it was the opposite.
“Certainly in my second spell back (at West Ham), it would be one of the worst performances.”
In the first half itself Moyes’ name could already be heard chorused in rousing song by West Ham supporters, only to be continued in the second half with chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ and ‘sacked in the morning’.
“I totally understand,” he added. “They’ve been watching a really good team for the last three years, a team that’s been finishing sixth or seventh in the Premier League, been watching a team that’s got into the semi-final of Europe, a team who’s just won the group in Europe again, so I understand it’s hard to come and watch that performance today.
“We’ve not had too many days as bad as today, we’ve not had many and you don’t get allowed many. I’ve got to say it felt a bad day for us and we have to try and get that picked up.”
It was a totally different scenario for Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi as he was entertained by his team from the stands with his feet up while serving a touchline ban for his red card in the tunnel against Fulham a fortnight ago.
“It was very different,” he said. “The stadium is very nice and my place was fantastic, but I prefer my place on the bench.”
The Seagulls remain in the hunt for Europe and De Zerbi is not talking down their prospects.
“If you see the table we can fight,’ he added. ‘It’s not right to speak about one place in the table but we are playing very well and we can try.”