"We were below the level, it's really clear. It's hard to take, hard to digest. It's very painful because we were not Sunderland and it's not acceptable."

On what he wants to see from his team: "Reaction. We will have ups and downs in the season, this one is a big down. I'm very disappointed for the fans. They were with us until the last minute, but they were not on the pitch, which is a big problem in the Premier League because the opponent is strong. They are relentless. If you make mistakes, they will seize them, and it was the case today."

On whether he's worried: "To be fair, I'm always worried because it's my job to find the little problems and try to help the players to go higher. Today the job will be massive because it was a bad game. We won't find excuses. We'll keep working hard, stay humble. We know our position in this league. We have a busy schedule. We want to embrace the challenge, but the position at the minute is not good.

"We were clear in the dressing room. The players know that they were not at the level. I am with them 100 per cent. From that point, we want to show energy, we want to show belief, we want to show more from the team like Sunderland used to be and today wasn't the case."

On why Sunderland are not good enough: "I don't know. Maybe because we became arrogant, this is what I think. It's just the beginning, football is like this. You can accept and just stand up and go back to work. If I believe we can go back to the top again, yeah, I believe this.

"It depends about what we really want, and this starts in training because we don't do enough, and after you can see it on the pitch. You cannot lie about football and today, I don't want to say we didn't want to win this game, but it didn't look like we want something.

"We just have to work hard to be back where we were like last season because, right now, this is not us, this is not Sunderland and I just think we have to sit and look inside the mirror, me first, I am trying to get better.

"It is difficult at the moment. I believe if you work hard in training, the game is going to be the same, but today was not a good game for us, and we just have to fight to be better for the next."