Michail Antonio makes bold West Ham relegation claim…

Michail Antonio makes bold West Ham relegation claim amid message for Leeds United and Everton

Michail Antonio says West Ham are "too good to go down" this season as the Hammers battle to avoid relegation.

The Hammers sit just one point above third from bottom Everton after a difficult season to date, with West Ham winning just six of their 25 Premier League fixtures so far this term.

David Moyes' men recently climbed out of the bottom three after a 4-0 victory against Nottingham Forest at the London Stadium, before being brought back down to earth with a bump on Saturday as they were well beaten by Brighton, losing 4-0 at the Amex Stadium.

Nine teams are currently separated by just six points at the bottom of the table, with West Ham just one point above Leeds United and Everton, two points above bottom club Bournemouth and four behind Crystal Palace in 12th.

And Antonio has said that there is a confidence that West Ham will not be relegated this season, with the forward giving his verdict on the battle at the bottom and the Hammers' campaign so far.

"We have never thought we will go down, during the whole course of this season, during the bad periods and we have never once thought we will be going down," he said, speaking on the Footballer's Football Podcast.

"We definitely know that we are too good to go down. We are too good to go down, off the back of the last two seasons we have had, we have shown the quality that we have. We haven't lost many players from that squad either, so we still have that quality that we have played with from the last two years, so it shows we have the quality to do better - and we will do better.

"At the end of the day, it is about getting to that 40 point mark. It is so tight down there, with teams winning and coming out [of the bottom three], then losing and going back into it. Everyone is trying to perform and do well, but we have got the quality to do it and we will do it.

Michail Antonio has had his say on West Ham's season to date. ((Photo by James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images))

"We have had that meeting, we are in a relegation scrap. It is not about being pretty or playing the best football, it is about getting the points on the board, no matter how you do it, you just have to get the points on the board. That's where we are and we know we need to fight, we need to scrap. We have a few players who have been in the Premier League for a long time and we know what it takes."

As for the 4-0 defeat against Brighton at the Amex Stadium on Saturday, he admitted that West Ham were nowhere near good enough as he described it as "one of the worst games" they have had as a team.

Indeed, he gave an honest assessment of the thrashing on the south coast, adding that the Hammers are keen to put things right as soon as possible as they face AEK Larnaca in the Europa Conference League this evening (Thursday), before hosting Aston Villa at the London Stadium on Sunday.

"To be honest, Brighton are a bogey team for us, we have not beaten them since they have been in the Premier League and they are a good team," Antonio said. "They have their philosophy, their identity and they know what they are doing. The football they played was quality, but I am not just saying about the quality they had, but also how bad we were. It was probably up there with one of the worst games we have had as a team, but it happens.

"We haven't been getting the results, but we have been playing good football and taken a lot of positives from the games we have been in. But from this game, there were not many positives we can take from it.

"At the end of the day, we are human and we have to accept it. We have done that, we have accepted it and we move on and look to put it right in the next game."

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