“There are reasons [for West Ham’s troubles]. Sometimes when a manager says those kind of things they are excuses but there are reasons to sort out and get the solutions and definitely not to go wild in the panic. 'This has happened and this has happened but we now need to sort this and this’.”

A target has been set. After the damaging 4-2 away defeat by West Bromwich Albion last Saturday, following the home loss by the same scoreline to Watford the previous week, Bilic drew a line in the sand. The next three matches, he said, taking West Ham up to the international break in October (that he previously mentioned), were “mega”.

That included the EFL Cup match at home to Accrington Stanley – 24 hours exactly after the birth of his daughter – which was won in the 96th minute through a trademark Dimitri Payet free-kick. Extra-time would have been damaging; a defeat unthinkable against a side 11th in League Two.

There is now Southampton at home and also Middlesbrough at home which will, West Ham hope, get their season back on track and also deal with the problems around the new stadium with extra stewarding, segregation and disgruntled fans being reallocated into different areas. It has to settle down.