West Ham boss Slaven Bilic braced for crunch match with Swansea City after Tottenham defeat makes it four Premier League losses in six games

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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 3-2 home defeat to London rivals Tottenham was certainly 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 and Harry Kane to score twice in quick succession before half-time.

West Ham’s match with Swansea City next Saturday assumes huge importance for Slaven Bilic

Serge Aurier’s red card at 3-1 down allowed West Ham a late rally, but despite Cheikhou Kouyate’s header, they couldn’t find an equaliser.

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.

Under-pressure Irons' boss Bilic desperately needs a win after four defeats in six games

He said: ‘I have mixed emotions about the game - 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 and good defending. We didn’t give them those pockets of spaces and we took a lot of balls from them.

Bilic faces a vital spell either side of international break with games against Swansea, Burnley and Brighton

‘It’s hard now to talk about those situations, because nothing came from them, but they were good situations. Unfortunately we did not take those opportunities.

‘After the red card, we changed the system. They were defending the box and we tried to create two versus one situations on the wing.

‘Unfortunately only one ball was brilliant, the others were missing quality and they were defending in numbers.’

A further headache for Bilic came after Michail Antonio went off in the first-half 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.’