Thursday 2 February 2017 00:10, UK
Slaven Bilic has demanded a response from his West Ham players after they slumped to a second heavy defeat to Man City inside a month.
The Hammers, who lost 5-0 at home to Pep Guardiola's side in the FA Cup third round in January, were soundly beaten 4-0 by the same opponents in the Premier League on Wednesday.
West Ham have suffered several one-sided defeats at the London Stadium this season, also losing 5-1 to Arsenal, but have the chance to get back to winning ways at Southampton on Saturday.
"It's a heavy defeat for us but after every one of them we bounce back," Bilic said. "After the Arsenal defeat, we bounced back, after the City defeat in the cup we bounced back. We have to do it now.
"The good thing about football is that there is an opportunity in three days' time.
"We cannot say it doesn't matter and let's forget about it. But on the other hand, we cannot let this affect our game and everything good that we have done recently.
"In a way we are coping better away than at home. Why? In tonight's game we just gave the ball away and did things we didn't do last year.
"We are down. People say to treat these games like a bonus game but, no, this was a three points' game. I expected that we would get something out of this game. Now we need to make it up on Saturday."
Mistakes by Aaron Cresswell and Pedro Obiang contributed to two of City's three first-half goals, and Bilic admitted his side gifted opportunities to their opponents.
"It's hard to find positive things from these games," the West Ham boss added. "First and foremost, we have to give them credit but we helped them.
"It was kind of a copy and paste game from two weeks ago in the FA Cup.
"It sounds crazy but we started well. We didn't have too many problems when we were behind the ball or when they had the ball. When we had the ball they scored the first goal and the third goal.
"When you give the ball to players like David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne and they have players with pace like (Gabriel) Jesus and (Leroy) Sane, then they punish you. And that's exactly what happened.
"After 3-0 you are hoping to turn the game around but it is mission impossible to get back."
