Slaven Bilic: 'It's a massively important period'

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has taken responsibility for his side's recent results, but has backed his team to return to winning ways sooner rather than later.

On Wednesday night, the Hammers lost 3-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, a result which extended their run of successive defeats to five games and left them looking over their shoulder towards the relegation zone.

However, while Bilic has acknowledged that the situation is not ideal, he feels that the club are capable of turning things around in their next two games.

The 48-year-old told reporters: "It is the manager's responsibility. I am not talking about blame - there is no point talking about that. It is my job to take those defeats on my chest and to prepare the team for our game against Swansea.

"[Swansea and Sunderland] are massively important games but I have had those kinds of games before and some of the players have had those kinds of games.

"They are not do-or-die situations but we don't want to come into a do-or-die situation. We wanted to do it before this game against Swansea."

A sixth defeat in a row would leave West Ham just two points above 18th-placed Swansea in the table.