Bilic braced for crunch games

WEST HAM’S home fixture with Swansea City next Saturday assumes massive importance for under-pressure manager Slaven Bilic after a fourth defeat in six Premier League games.

Yesterday’s home defeat by Tottenham was no disgrace but the Hammers are struggling to convert positive spells in matches into much-needed points.

They started well at the London Stadium, only to allow sloppiness to creep into their game.

A vital spell now lies ahead either side of the international break, with the home match against Swansea followed by a trip to Burnley and a home fixture with Brighton.

Bilic is well accustomed to feeling the pressure and takes it as part and parcel of his job, but West Ham will quickly have to get some points on the board.

He said: ‘I have mixed emotions — disappointed but proud of the fight the players showed.

‘We ended with good fighting and trying from our side, but unfortunately after 3-0 there was not enough time to do something in the game.

‘Until that first goal, we were properly against them with a really good performance.

‘We didn’t give them those pockets of spaces and we took a lot of balls from them. It’s hard now to talk about those situations because nothing came from them but they were good situations.’

A further headache for Bilic came after Michail Antonio went off with a groin injury. ‘He didn’t pull it big time,’ said Bilic. ‘We have to scan it first to see how big it is, how bad it is.’