Jarrod Bowen believes West Ham's fight for safety in the Premier League "was starting to creep in a little bit last season".

The Hammers are on the brink of relegation to the Championship, two points off safety with just one game to go.

However, Tottenham, who currently sit in 17th, have a game in hand and could confirm West Ham's relegation if they beat Chelsea on Tuesday.

A draw for Spurs would likely be enough to keep them up, too, as they have a far superior goal difference over West Ham.

Bowen struggled to match his goalscoring exploits from the previous campaigns. He has scored eight league goals this season, his lowest since netting six in 2022-23.

However, his 10 assists in the English top-flight is his joint-best in a single campaign (also 10 in 2021-22), while only Bruno Fernandes (20) and Rayan Cherki (12) have provided more assists in the Premier League this term.

Nevertheless, Bowen believes the West Ham players, including himself, have not done enough on the pitch to ease relegation fears.

"It's not like this season [relegation fight] has just come straightaway. It was starting to creep in a little bit last season," Bowen told Sky Sports.

"But we thought we'd be better this season. Obviously, we had a new manager, then we changed manager after a few games.

"New players coming in. You never want to sit here and give excuses. That's not what I'm about because ultimately it's us. It's all on us. We're the ones that play.

"You can be set up in a way that you can do things. But when you cross that line, it's your 11 players on the pitch against their 11 players on the pitch.

"That's ultimately what it is. And we just haven't played well enough. We haven't been good enough as a group.

"I haven't played to the standards that I know that I can. I'm big enough to accept that. I just haven't played well enough."