West Ham boss Graham Potter admitted he “needs to do better” as pressure on him mounted following tonight’s 5-1 hammering at home to Chelsea.
Potter’s side were abject in losing 3-0 at Sunderland last weekend but were arguably even worse at the London Stadium, capitulating defensively after leading through Lucas Paqueta’s early strike.
Chelsea, despite seeing Cole Palmer miss out after he sustained a groin injury in the warm-up, hit back through Joao Pedro before goals from Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah turned the game around.
The home fans displayed their frustration by either leaving early or booing and Potter acknowledged it was on him to turn the situation around.
He said: “I’m the head coach and I’m responsible for for the team and the team isn’t performing as well as we’d like and the results aren’t what we want. We need to get more out of the players and that’s my job.
“It’s a collective [responsibility]. As much as it’s nice to point fingers and blame people, we all have to do better. There’s nobody throwing anybody under the bus here.”
Potter abused by West Ham fans
Potter was subjected to abuse from home fans as he headed for the dressing room after the game. He added: “I can’t control what people say or do, everyone is entitled to their opinions, I have to do better and we have to do better.
“You’re under pressure all the time. I’m aware of my responsibilities and I know what the game is like.”
Potter added on Sky Sports: “A tough evening for us, of course. Bitterly disappointed with the result. With the manner of the goals, we concede after starting the game well. Too cheap, I think against a top team, we have to say that, to concede the goals in the manner we have is an impossible task.
“As I said, goals change games. Goals affect things too much, and when they’re cheap, like the ones we gave away, we have to do better. Until you can solve that, it’s always difficult in the Premier League, especially against the top teams. We have to improve a lot.
‘When you concede the goals in the manner we have, it makes it difficult. The timing of them as well. Fine margins again, but nevertheless over the course of the game, you put yourself in a position where if you open up too much and press too much, you can get passed through. But at the same time we’re at home and we need to create some pressure and try to get on the front foot and create some mistakes, so it was a tough evening for us.”
Bowen angry after heavy defeat
Captain Jarrod Bowen cut an angry figure when asked how he was feeling following the game.
“I think you can probably imagine. Fuming. Disappointing. All the emotions that come with being on the back of conceding eight goals in two games and not picking up a point yet,” he said.
“I think we got ourselves into a really good position at 1-0 and then I thought the goals were really cheap on our behalf. We didn’t really make them work for those three from set pieces, which we’ve always prided ourselves on over the years and a couple more finishes inside the six-yard box. We gifted the goals away and you do that against any opposition and we’ve learnt that against Sunderland last week and here tonight.”
Estevao shines for Chelsea
Although West Ham were abject, it was a fine display from Chelsea with 18-year-old Estevao Willian sparking as Palmer’s replacement, despite being to blame for the hosts’ opening goal.
Blues boss Enzo Maresca said: “He needs to adapt, he needs to make many mistakes to understand how the Premier League is different to in Brazil. We conceded after he did the flick, he needs to understand but he is a fantastic player.”
On Palmer, Maresca suggested it was nothing too serious, adding: “In the last four or five days he was not 100 per cent. In the warm up he felt something and we didn’t want to take any risk to get worse.”
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