West Ham winger Andriy Yarmolenko was refreshingly candid about the Hammers’ performance against Everton at the weekend.

The Ukrainian was surprisingly rested for the game and only came on as a second-half substitute during the 2-0 defeat. Speaking about the poor display, the midfielder has called on his teammates to change mentality, acknowledging there are no easy games in the Premier League:

“We must sit and think about our game. Everyone must think about his game because this is the English Premier League and we must change our mentality and fight for every ball because, on Saturday, we played so, so badly.”

“I think we must dig deeper because we weren’t aggressive and we really played badly. We must analyse this game and next week we play at home and we must show our fans we want to fight for the result, for this club.”

Yarmolenko has been in excellent form this season so his comments do have some weight behind them. West Ham’s inconsistency is nothing new, and the Ukrainian international rightly attributes the problem to one of attitude.

These are the same players who have already beaten Manchester United this season, but they are also capable of poor performances, like the 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace and the Everton defeat.

Can manager Manuel Pellegrini address this issue? It is something he has been wrestling with since his arrival as manager and he will need to find a solution sooner rather than later.