David Moyes backs West Ham players after Man City defeat

David Moyes has backed his players to turn West Ham's season around after they were narrowly beaten 2-1 by league leaders Manchester City at the Etihad.

Angelo Ogbonna gave the visitors a shock lead on the stroke of half-time but second-half goals from Nicolas Otamendi and David Silva earned City the three points.

City have made a habit of scoring late goals in recent weeks, with Silva's winning goal coming seven minutes from time, and Moyes lamented West Ham's defending for the game's decisive moment.

He said: "Eventually Manchester City will force you back. We weren't good enough at keeping the ball which meant we had to play slightly differently.

"But I've got to say the defensive set-up was good, we kept defending when we had to. I've seen a lot of Manchester City over the last year and they've improved all the time, so many players can cause you problems but I thought in the main our players did really well.

"I think we should have done much better with their winning goal. I would hope that the centre-back [Declan Rice] in that position would be able to deal with that by stopping the ball getting through or heading it away.

"I'm disappointed that we lost the goal but you have to remember we are playing a young 18-year-old centre-half and he did really well today, it was a big test for him.

"We were always quite good on the counter-attack, we've got a lot of power and pace up front. For long periods it looked as though it might be our day but it wasn't to be.

"They are a really good group of boys, they are trying to get away from trouble, they are working really hard to do so and they did that today. But when you play the top teams you're going to have to do it for 90 minutes, not 60 or 70 but 90 and we've got some other big teams coming up."

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West Ham have now gone eight Premier League games without a win and Moyes is still searching for his first victory as manager, having lost three and drawn one of his opening four games in charge.

It is unlikely to get any easier for Moyes and West Ham either as they face Chelsea at the London Stadium next Saturday, live on Sky Sports, before making the short trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal the following Wednesday.