Declan Rice was brutally honest in his assessment of West Ham United’s 4-0 defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
The skipper cut a desolate figure as Danny Welbeck rounded off Brighton’s largest Premier League win after Alex Mac Allister, Joël Veltman and Kaoru Mitoma had all earlier struck at Amex Stadium.
Rice wears his heart on his sleeve and was not holding back, then. The No41 admitted the showing let down the fans who made their way to Sussex.
“It is cliché to say it was not good enough,” Rice said, “but you have to apologise to the fans because we have let them and the Club down.
“As a player, I am hurting, all the lads are hurting. Last week we won 4-0, and then played really well in the FA Cup. We should have won [at Manchester United] so to have this result is a real setback.
“But credit to Brighton because they played us off the pitch and that was not a performance that was acceptable at all.”
Rice was, of course, disappointed that the Irons could not build on their win over Nottingham Forest last weekend and record consecutive league wins for the first time since October.
Travelling to Brighton was always going to be a difficult afternoon, with the Hammers yet to beat the Seagulls in the Premier League era – a run that stretched to 12 meetings following Saturday’s defeat.
But the focus now turns forward- it has to according to the skipper.
The Hammers return to the UEFA Conference League – a competition they have won eight out of eight fixtures in - away to AEK Larnaca in Cyprus on Thursday, before a Premier League encounter at home to Aston Villa next Sunday.
And Rice is well aware the Hammers must improve and quickly too.
“Brighton was not good enough,” the skipper stated, “it is going to hurt. We have let the fans down massively…but we will be onto the next.
“We just keep our heads down and I said to all the lads, we listen to ourselves and the people around us, and we stick together as a group and move on to the next one.
“We know it was not good enough today but let’s try and bounce back on Thursday and then we will have Villa on Sunday. I am sure our fans will be behind us in these next two fixtures.”
