As his side prepare to face Stoke City this weekend, their last game before the November international break, Slaven Bilic said his side can take encouragement from the number of chances his side created away at Everton.
Despite the defeat, the manager highlighted the number of openings his men created, particularly in the opening stages of Sunday’s encounter.
Bilic said: “We played some good football at times, we created some chances, so I am happy about that. I felt that they were vulnerable at the back, particularly at the beginning of the game and we created problems.
“I thought we coped with their strong attack well in the first half. But we can’t blame anyone else for this defeat, we can’t blame unluckiness, it was down to us. It was a 50-50 game, we just couldn’t take it.”
While the breakthrough proved elusive, the travelling Hammers carved out 13 chances in total – which left the manager with reason to believe his side deserved more than a 2-0 defeat.
He continued: “There’s a bitter taste because we know we should have taken something from this game. I had that feeling at half-time, and it continued as the game went on.
“Once they scored, we knew it would always be tough to come back against them as they are a very difficult side to play against.”