Nuno | It should be our game – West Ham United FC

“Nuno Espírito Santo cut a frustrated Head Coach after his West Ham United team relinquished a two-goal half-time lead to lose 3-2 at Chelsea.

The Irons were superb in the opening 45 minutes and deservedly led through goals from Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville. But, after a bright start to the second half did not produce a third goal, Chelsea turned the game around.

Half-time substitutes João Pedro and Marc Cucurella each headed past Alphonse Areola to level before Enzo Fernández crashed in an added-time winner to leave Nuno and his players floored.

Jean Clair-Todibo was then sent-off for violent conduct following a melee, meaning he will miss upcoming games through suspension.

Speaking afterwards, Nuno believes if his team can reach the levels they showed in the opening 45 minutes in the final 14 matches, they can still successfully escape relegation, but they cannot afford to defend the penalty area the way they did in the second if they want to survive…

I’m disappointed, sad, frustrated.

It was a game we started really well. We were really good in the first half. When you score two goals away from home, it should be your game.

In the first half we combined and we defended well. We were in control and every time we went forward, we combined and we scored two beautiful goals.

That’s a frustration, not being able to sustain our performance through the game.

When they cross, we have to defend it, and we didn’t

We knew that Chelsea were going to react.

We should have done much better to defend our own box. We should have done much better.

We allowed their centre-back to step in and cross and after that we tried to survive and couldn’t.

It was the moment that we felt when Chelsea scored the first goal [that we went to a back five], that the wide areas were not in [our] control, our wingers were not able to control their full-backs to allow Malick and Aaron to go stronger.

At the same time, we have to defend the box. When they cross, we have to defend it, and we didn’t.

I didn’t see the images [of the incident which saw Todibo sent-off].

I think it was a bit of confusion, a lot of stress on both teams, but I didn’t see the images.

That is disappointing [to lose him in those circumstances], but I have to see the images so I can judge properly what happened.

But the VAR intervened, they saw the images. The bad thing is that we’re not going to have JC for the next games.

There’s a lot of football to be played.

As long as we can keep maintaining the levels of performance like we did in the first half, we’re going to win matches, of course.

But this match, honestly, with all the respect that I have for Chelsea, it should be our game, we should have it.

We have to react this week and prepare well for a game against a tough team that’s going to be Burnley. We have to prepare properly”