James Ward-Prowse says West Ham's 4-1 defeat at Aston Villa could end up being a "valuable day" for the club by the end of the season if they learn the right lessons from it.
The Hammers lost for just the third time in the Premier League this season when they conceded four at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon, with all three losses coming against sides playing in Europe.
West Ham's matches against teams not featuring in European competitions has been much better, with four wins and two draws from six matches.
Sunday's defeat to Villa, who are playing in the Europa Conference League this season, is a reminder for David Moyes' side of the level they need to be at to compete at the top of the Premier League.
“This club wants to be in that region of the table challenging, and today is a realisation of what it takes to be at that level," Ward-Prowse said in an interview on the club's website.
"As long as we come away from this knowing what needs to be done to get in there, it can be a valuable day come the end of the season if we learn from it."
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Ward-Prowse continued: “I think it was an entertaining game for the neutral. We had a few chances but maybe didn’t make the right decision in the first half in certain moments and made a few individual errors. Collectively, as a team, we can do a lot better than that.
“It was just a bad day and one we go away and reflect on now and make sure we become hard to beat again because I think it’s in West Ham’s DNA not to be beaten easily.”
The Hammers were forced to go hunting for goals and take risks with the ball when Douglas Luiz scored his second goal of the afternoon at Villa Park to put the hosts 2-0 up on 52 minutes.
Jarrod Bowen managed to find the bottom corner to halve the deficit not long after, but the space left in behind them was routinely exploited by the Villa forwards with Ollie Watkins restoring the two-goal cushion on 74 minutes before Leon Bailey added the fourth late on.
“I think, in that moment [after Bowen's goal], we should have recognised it a little bit more and been more structured and made it more difficult for them,” Ward-Prowse said. “But I think we went chasing it at certain moments and when you give the boys they’ve got up top space in behind, they’re going to exploit it, and they did.
“There are so many games in the season, a game every three days, so it’s important we don’t dwell on it but we do look at it and at what went wrong and ensure there is a reaction in the next game.”
