Mark Noble: West Ham's defending is laughable… it can’t get any worse for us

The 29-year-old believes the season can’t get any worse for the Hammers, who have now lost four league games on the trot and are in the relegation zone.

Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and James Ward-Prowse all scored to continue the miserable start for Slaven Bilic's men at the Olympic Stadium, following their move from Upton Park over the summer, and Noble pulled no punches in his assessment of the match.

"It all blends into one - the start we had," he said.

"Eleven goals in three games is laughable and it's not good enough. I think we could have kept playing until tonight and we wouldn’t have scored.

"I thought we started all right and then 'bang' we conceded a goal and, to be honest, we never looked back in it. If I'm honest it could have been six in the end.

"Adrian pulled off some good saves and on the bright side, I don't think it can get any worse.”

Manager Slaven Bilic looked shell-shocked after the match, answering questions with soft, measured tones. "It is the same players and manager who were doing good things last season (when they finished seventh).

"Eighty per cent of the team is like that. But we were not happy with how we played in the last third of the pitch," he said.