Slaven Bilic believes with a little more quality in their delivery, his West Ham United side would have claimed at least a share of the spoils from Saturday’s derby with Tottenham.
The Hammers were edged out by the odd goal in five at London Stadium, their comeback from 3-0 down not quite enough to secure a point.
Harry Kane’s double and Christian Eriksen’s strike looked to have taken the game away from West Ham, but Chicharito’s header and Serge Aurier’s red card set up a thrilling finish.
Cheikhou Kouyate then gave his side real hope with a bullet header three minutes from the end, but Bilic’s men ran out of time in their bid to deny the visitors.
The boss had praise for the application of his side, although he felt they were the architects of their own downfall in the period before the break.
Bilic said: “In the first half hour we were playing good, we were not giving them space between the lines, in the pockets, and we took a lot of balls from them in good areas
“Up until the first goal it was a very even game. I spoke to the lads and we can talk about the quality of crosses after the red card for Aurier when we had the advantage down the wings.
“We did one brilliant cross and it was the goal from Cheikhou, but we were in those positions ten times.
“We can talk about that bit of quality, but apart from that the only period of the game that I am disappointed about is after we conceded the first goal. In those ten minutes, suddenly from being on top of the game, closing them down and being on the front foot, [we weren’t].
“First goal is credit to them, but the second goal is our sloppiness rather than brilliant movement.”