Slaven Bilic Bemoans Wasted Opportunities During West Ham's 2-3 Home Defeat to Spurs

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic believes his team's wastefulness in front of goal, particularly during the first-half, cost the Hammers at least a point against their London rivals Tottenham on Saturday.

The Croatian told West Ham's official website: “Before the first goal we were in good counter-attacking situations four or five times with Marko, Chicha or Michail, and we had open space and three against three and good occasions, but we didn’t score or materialise those opportunities."

“Then, as happens against teams of that quality, we made a mistake in our half of the pitch and their finishing was clinical. The rest of the first half, it was nowhere near a 2-0 game in the first half. It’s very hard to come back from 2-0."

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Bilic, who has entered the final year of the three season contract he signed with West Ham in the summer of 2015, felt his side should of had a penalty: “For me Serge Aurier handled the ball and there was a tug on Arnautovic in the first half, there was also a nudge on Andy Carroll on the last corner, I think from Sanchez. It was a free header for Andy, so maybe there."

The Hammers' gaffer also highlighted the effect of losing Michail Antonio to a groin injury in the first-half of the contest: "Of course, it hurts you to lose a player like Michail in a time that you are doing really well, then they scored, but we should have scored the second goal before". 

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While regarding the severity of the injury Antonio suffered Bilic said: "He felt it a bit. He didn’t pull it big time, but we have to scan it first to see how big or how bad it is".

West Ham's poor start to the season has seen pressure grow on Slaven Bilic and he will know that if he doesn't start picking up wins soon, he won't get the chance to complete the final year of his contract.