West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola slammed his side's first-half performance following their loss at Manchester City.

The Hammers were behind after just five minutes as old-boy Carlos Tevez struck for a City side showing plenty of attacking intent.

Carlton Cole bagged an equaliser, but Martin Petrov capped an impressive display by making it 2-1 at half-time.

Things did not improve after the break as Tevez wrapped up the match with his second, and Zola was not happy.

The Hammers chief was also not too pleased with referee Chris Foy, who disallowed a Scott Parker goal in the first-half - but he refused to blame the officials for the loss.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Zola lamented "It was a game, in my opinion, that we didn't play at all and yes maybe there was a couple of mistakes from the referee but that is part of the game.

"But the standard I am expecting from the team is much more, in the second-half we were better.

"I am talking about the first-half which wasn't good enough and you can't afford to come to places like this and just give presents to the opposition, they will take advantage of the smallest opportunity."

Zola finds his side third from bottom and he insists they are better than their league position is showing.

"For the moment, we haven't been able to show it [how good they are]," he continued.

"Unless we improve it is not good enough - no doubt we will improve our position and will ask more of ourselves."