Huge claim as star from Leeds United rivals says team are 'too good' for drop with £52m example

A tight hamstring ruled West Ham United forward Michail Antonio out of last weekend’s Premier League clash at Leeds United’s next opponents Brighton who stormed to a 4-0 victory which left the Irons fifth-bottom and only one point above the Whites.

Antonio, though, has delivered an extremely bullish message about his confidence in West Ham’s survival bid in which the striker has highlighted the actions of £53m striker Lucas Paqueta to support his beliefs.

Speaking on the The Footballer's Football Podcast, Antonio declared: "We have never thought we will go down, during the whole course of this season, during the bad periods and anything we have done, we have never once thought that we will be going down.

"We definitely know we are too good to go down. We are too good to go down, off the last two seasons, what we have done, what we have achieved, it shows the quality that we have.

"We haven't lost many players from our squad as well so we have still got the quality that we played with the last two years, so it shows that we have the quality to do better - and we will do better.

"At the end of the day, right now it's getting to that 40 mark. I think it's definitely going to be 40 this year because of the amount of teams that are in it. It's so tight down there, some teams are losing, go back in and next week they are winning. Everyone is pulling it out the bag, everyone is trying to perform, everyone is trying to do well so it's definitely tight but we have got the quality to do it and we will do it.

"We have sat down to be fair. Everyone has had it where they have been in this situation. You sit yourself down, you have the crisis meeting and you go we are in a relegation scrap.

"Every professional footballer who has been in and around a relegation scrap has had that meeting and we have had that meeting. We are in that relegation scrap. It's not about being pretty, it's not about trying to play the best of football, it is about getting the points on the board, no matter how or any way you do it, you have just got to get the points on the board and you have got to get to that 40 mark because that's where we are and that's what we need to do.

"We know that we need to fight, we need to scrap, we have spoken about it and all the players are doing it and you can even see it in the games. We paid £52m for this player Lucas Paqueta and he is flying in challenges, he is flying, he is doing everything he can for the team.

"Obviously when you can see him doing it the rest of the team are going to do it because we have been here, we have been in the Premier League for a long time and we know what it takes."

Reflecting on his side’s 4-0 hammering at Brighton, Antonio reasoned: "Brighton is a bogey team for us. We have not beaten them since they have been in the Premier League and they are a very good team. They know how they play.

"They have their philosophy, they have their identity, they know what they are doing. The way they played around us, the football that they played was quality. On the day, I am not just saying how quality they were, I'm also going to say how bad we were.

"We weren't keeping the ball as well as we normally did in the last few games that we had played in. It was probably up there with one of the worst games we have had as a team. "It happens. As much as the results haven't really happened for us, we have been playing well, we have been playing good football. We have taken a lot of positives from the games that we have been in.

"But then this game, there's not many positives we can take from it. At the end of the day, we are human and we need to accept that but we've accepted it, we've moved on and we are going to make it right in the next game."