For Manuel Pellegrini, the solution to West Ham’s early season wobble is simple. Executing it may prove to be more problematic.

Adama Traore’s injury-time strike for Wolves inflicted a fourth defeat in four on the new Hammers boss, whose side are the only team in England’s top four divisions without a point to their name.

An equally worrying statistic comes in the knowledge that only once in 92 previous years have West Ham had to wait until their fifth game to get on the board. That was the 2010-11 season where Avram Grant guided the club to the foot of the Premier League table.

Despite £100million of summer spending, West Ham look to have holes in key positions. Their midfield was left looking pedestrian in the extreme by Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves. Issa Diop was alone in providing solidity in defence. There appears to be no neutral left winger for Pellegrini to call on.

However the Chilean, a league champion with Manchester City in 2014, offered a simpler explanation. Asked what the overall problem at the club was he said: “There’s a lot of things I don’t want to analyse one by one.

“I think we need to defend better and score more goals."

There appears litter reprieve on the horizon for West Ham, who travel to Everton after the international break before a run of four games that sees them welcome Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham to the London Stadium.

Pellegrini told Standard Sport: “We knew before we started that we have seven difficult games. Maybe we didn’t think to lose six points here at home but all the games in the Premier League are difficult.

“We must work and play against Everton, improving what we are doing, trying to reduce the amount of mistakes. Everyone inside the club is calm.”

He added: “We have a strong squad. We are going to have better performances in the future. Of course when you don’t get one point in the first four games it’s difficult to start talking about the same trust but we have a good squad.”

West Ham had had their chances against the newly-promoted Wolves, with Marko Arnautovic denied only by goalkeeper Rui Patricio’s face 10 minutes from time, but had only themselves to blame when Traore stole in for the winner.

Carlos Sanchez was outmuscled by Ruben Neves, though Pellegrini insisted it was a foul, before the Portuguese playmaker fed Leo Bonatini, who needed only to hold the ball up as Traore steamed down the wing to provide the killing blow.

“It was a free-kick for ourselves," Pellegrini added. "But the best choice in that moment is to make a long ball out of the box. The players decided on another action so we lost that ball and finally the game.

“But we didn’t play in the way we need to if we want to win, especially in that first 45 minutes.”