Tomas Soucek says he and his West Ham United teammates are ‘angry and frustrated’ after losing 4-1 to Tottenham on Saturday, despite taking the lead through Mohammed Kudus. 

The Ghanaian forward fired the Hammer ahead in the derby after  eighteen minutes, before Kulusevski equaliser ten minutes from half-time. However, despite a very well matched first period, Spurs completely took over in the second half. Spurs were 4-1 up nine minutes into the second-half thanks to goals from Bissouma, Son and an Alphonse Areola own goal.

Soucek said: “It’s very frustrating, and we’re all angry. We said [in the dressing room] that this cannot happen because it’s a derby for us, for the fans, and it’s a massive game. We lost the game with a big difference in the scoreline, so we’re very sad. We also said this is only one result, and we have the whole week to overcome this setback and make sure we’re ready for the game against Manchester United next week.

“They made a substitution [at half-time, bringing on Pape Sarr for James Maddison], but we still wanted to play in the same way, and we knew that we created a few chances before half time and were also winning one-nil at one point. We went in with a draw at half time, but in the second half we were not good enough for an eight-minute spell and conceded three goals in that space of time. That killed the game. We spoke about mentality after the game and if we concede a goal that we can’t concede again like we did today.”

Sarr coming on for Maddison allowed Spurs to dominate a midfield that was completely open in the first half, while Guido Rodriguez has a positive match, the midfield three of him, Soucek and Paqueta just didn’t eork on the day, and allowed Spurs to take control in the second period.

He continued: “When we were losing 2-1, we wanted to get points from this game, but they were attacking us a lot and scored two more goals, which was very frustrating. We couldn’t manage it well, and, in the end, it was 4-1 because of the second half performance. We didn’t deserve any points today.

“The last game was perfect as we won 4-1 [against Ipswich Town], but we’ve come back from international duty and got smashed, so we have to keep balanced and make up for it at home. We have to replicate how we played in the last game [against Ipswich] and forget today. We have to be ready because this was a very bad day.”