Nuno Espirito Santo feels the heat after West Ham suffer defeat to West Brom

West Ham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo criticised his defence after West Brom’s stylish 3-1 win at the London Stadium left him feeling the heat.

A second consecutive home defeat, in which his side have shipped six goals, contained few saving graces for Nuno, who faced the wrath of fans on the final whistle.

Albion, slick and measured, moved into the top four after goals from Felix Horn Myhre, Jimmy-Jay Morgan and Callum Styles handed a deserved third win in four games for boss James Morrison.

It left 3,000 travelling fans revelling in the discomfort of Nuno, once manager of Black Country arch-rivals Wolves, ahead of Tuesday’s date with fellow high-flyers Southampton at the Hawthorns.

Nuno admitted: “Many things went wrong – many, many things. It was a poor performance. The idea was to start well, but after West Bromwich scored it was very difficult.

“Then at the start of the second half, many fans were not even sitting down when we conceded a poor, poor goal.”

Asked about visiting fans’ taunts that he would be “sacked in the morning”, he responded: “This is the reality: we can only change this if we win games. The solution is results, we have to go back to results.

“When you lose at home to Charlton, Southampton and West Brom, the only solution is to improve our game.

“There is pressure every day. We have conceded six goals at home in two games and we have to fix it. That cannot happen.

“In the first half we were too far away from each other and for the second goal we allowed too much time, with no cover in the box.

“The idea and the approach is to try and score first. That is the objective of any team and it’s our responsibility to change it.”

West Ham’s bid to regain their Premier League status had already been undermined by patchy home form, notably the missed last-gasp penalties against Charlton and QPR which ultimately cost them three points.

From the moment they fell behind, for the 10th time in 16 games, the supporters’ patience was wearing thin as Norwegian midfielder tapped home Morgan’s low cross from point-blank range.

Jarrod Bowen levelled through a deflected strike, but second-half goals from Morgan and Styles wrapped up the victory for West Brom.

Baggies head coach Morrison said: “That performance has been coming. I know how difficult this league is and some teams have spent heavily, but we have to have that belief that we can handle the pressure.

“In terms of that, and scoring at the right times, it was the complete performance.

“There was a bit of noise about West Ham conceding early, and how it might create a bit of pressure around them. I’ve watched them and they have been unlucky at times, with fine margins going against them, but I was so happy with the way we played.”