I think the reason we lost was all about preparation and application of a game plan as well as sloppy finishing and a general air of malaise about our team.

WHU came out all guns blazing and were on top of us for the first 25 minutes pressing us hard and getting down their left flank with Cresswell finding space to cross into our box and Payet with room to feed him.

We were lucky not to be more than 1-0 down before we stemmed the tide and began to contain their threat.

Why are we so woeful at pressing teams and yet allow them to pin us back? Watch Leicester and in particular Vardy - he runs his nuts off to shut down a building attack from the front. Compare and contrast with any of our attacking players who amble around when we haven't got the ball.

The penalty we missed was typical of the day we were having, careless and clumsy. Beforehand I was convinced he would use power rather than a chip.

2nd half we had more possession but we were wasteful of opportunities - the free kick Townsend passed to Ward that he wasn't expecting on his left foot was typical of the bad decisions made.

WHU going down to 10 made little difference either and time ran out on us.

For me the only bonus was that Cabaye looked as though he was on the mend and eager to contribute.

If we play like that again next week Leicester will beat us easily.

Good points. If Benteke was being taken off the ball by 3 centre backs then what were the other supposedly attacking minded players doing ? Unfortunately that was one of the pieces in the jigsaw that didn't materialise pre season but we seemed to be looking. Hopefully we won't stand still in Jan but continue targeting quality in this area as it needs improvement particularly in games like yesterday where our first shot on target was on 60 mins at home. Other issues were their 3-5-2 formation stifling us so easily and the lack of clean sheets at the back due to a number of silly errors over a number of games such as yesterday, WBA and the Spuds.

“ [T]here are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we now know we don't know.But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

Interesting point by Henry of Peckham. We seem. To play better in our away strip.

That red and blue is a bit murky under our floodlights.

The match was like our home defeat to S'land last season.

Agree with the above. We could all see that they were going to score but never changed things until half time. After 10 minutes something needed to be done. They took the game to us and it paid off for them.

Completely agree. It was evident after 10 minutes that Bilic had done his homework and got his tactics right.

We were given a lifeline with the penalty, and if you don't take them then expect nothing. It's a shame Benteke missed because I think any confidence West Ham had may well have severely knocked and we may well have gone on to take the points.

Old, Ungifted and White

I blame the rain. Don't think Benteke dealt with it well. Generally they coped with the rain better then us.