The Hammers were thumped 5-2 in the Premier League London derby on Sunday (21.04.24) and Moyes admits that he "could not believe" how poorly his team played during a first half that saw them fall four goals behind after just half an hour.

The coach said: "The first half was as bad as I have seen us play. We have had three or four of these incidents this season, games very similar, where I could not believe the team.

"I don’t think the team, in the three years I have been here, have gone to the depths in the three of four games this year. Today, the first half was unacceptable.

"Maybe we’ve lost a wee bit of the tough culture that we’ve had, the pride in making sure that we didn’t concede and were hard to play against and difficult opposition. Today, we were none of them."

West Ham had put plenty of effort into a losing cause against Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League in midweek but Moyes refused to accept tiredness as an excuse for the woeful display.

He said: "I am giving no excuses whatsoever. The players got praised for their performance on Thursday night but today was so bad I cannot put it into words.

"I am not giving Thursday night as an excuse. I am not accepting that.

"I am so disappointed for supporters who came in today and in truth I am embarrassed to sit here and be speaking on behalf of the team and the way they have performed today but I am the manager.

"I have got to say I have not had many teams who have played like that in my whole career."