West Ham United are a mid-table team, says Scott Parker

Scott Parker says West Ham are a mid-table team and are suffering a blip in confidence after a good start to the season following their 4-1 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday.

West Ham have done well on their travels so far this season with wins against Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool, but have now lost their last two.

Slaven Billic was without midfielder Dimitri Payet for the trip to White Hart Lane, who was ruled out for up to three months after a tackle by Everton's James McCarthy.

"West Ham are a mid-table team, they have some very good players and I see this as just a blip in confidence," Parker said after the game on Super Sunday.

"It depends how quickly you can bounce back from it. Billic is right when he says 4-1 in a London derby hurts a little bit more and they need to try and re-group a bit.

"I didn't think there was much in the first 15 minutes, their game plan was going quite well. The space between the back four and midfield was quite condensed and it looked like a bit of an early boxing match in terms of trying to weigh each other up, but goals are important in games and after the first one went in, it was a tough afternoon for them.

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"At the start of the season, it was probably a surprise to see Billic come in, probably a bit of a risk if anything. You know what you get with Sam Allardyce but he's come in and done a fantastic job, got some early results which were probably a bit false on the scale of where they were in the league. 

"But confidence is key, so hopefully they can pick up some results now and get going again."

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp echoed the same sentiments during the post-match analysis, and thinks West Ham fans have been subject to some 'unrealistic expectations' so far this season.

"I think they've been punching above their weight. You only have to look at their results so far and if you're a West Ham fan, you're in dream land because you're beating Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City away and they're starting to have unrealistic expectations.

"Billic has done a great job and they're playing good football but I think they're a mid-table team. I don't think we should get too excited thinking they can get into the top four. Watford away and today have been damaging on the team and you can see the confidence draining out of them and they've got to pick themselves back up."