Last Updated: Sun, 07 Oct 2012 19:41
West Ham boss Sam Allardyce is trying to remain as upbeat as possible in the wake of his side's 3-1 defeat to Arsenal at Upton Park.
The Hammers had taken a 21st minute lead in Saturday's clash with the Gunners thanks to Mohamed Diame's fine finish, but Olivier Giroud popped up just before half-time to net his first Premier League goal to bring their visitors level.
However, Allardyce's afternoon would get even worse as he first saw Guy Demel and Ricardo Vaz Te go off injured, before Theo Walcott and Santi Cazorla inflicted further misery by scoring the late goals to win Arsenal the points.
The Hammers boss has since paid tribute to fit-again striker Andy Carroll, who came through the whole game, even though he hadn't planned to play him for so long before the kick-off.
Allardyce said: "He is okay, he is fine. We didn't want to play him for 90 minutes because he has only just come back from that long spell injured and hasn't played that much - but unfortunately our injury plight continued as the game progressed.
"It is a little worrying because we got injuries against QPR and we got three more injuries today, Winston Reid was suffering badly with sciatica but we had used all of our subs.
"Guy Demel came off with a thigh (injury) and Ricardo Vaz Te unfortunately with a dislocated shoulder.
"We are disappointed with the result and disappointed with those injuries we have picked up, but I'm not disappointed with the lads' application and performance.
"We tried our best, it wasn't quite good enough, but we are pleased with our performance and perhaps a little disappointed that we didn't get a draw."
The Hammers have made a decent start to life back in the top-flight after picking up 11 points from their opening seven matches.
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