Graham Potter says his Albion side have the “character and resilience” to bounce back from a heavy home defeat.

But he is aware they still have work to do to secure Premier League survival after four teams below them picked up wins.

Albion start the week five points clear of the drop zone with three games to go after their 5-0 home defeat by Manchester City.

Aston Villa threw themselves a lifeline by beating Crystal Palace 2-0 yesterday.

Watford and Norwich both won on Saturday.

Bournemouth completed the Prem weekend by thrashing Leicester 4-1 having trailed.

Albion struggled to take any positives from a defeat which offered none of the silver linings seen as Liverpool were given a good contest three days earlier.

Head coach Potter said: “We lost against Liverpool but I think we felt okay about it.

“We don’t really feel okay about (Saturday’s defeat).

“At the same time, I don’t want to throw the guys under the bus because they have been brilliant in terms of lockdown, how they handled themselves, how they have worked in the games.

“There is a big challenge when you play those types of teams so quickly and we just have to dust ourselves down.

“The boys’ character and resilience is there.

“We need to focus on the next three matches and get as many points as we can.”

Potter made five changes to his line-up to face City but said that was not done with Thursday’s trip to Southampton in mind.

He added: “It was taking into consideration the fact we played Liverpool on Wednesday night.

“The recovery time isn’t so much and you’ve put such a lot into that game as well.

“Not really (thinking) in terms of Southampton, it’s more just trying to use the squad as best we can to put some fresher legs on.

“I think we could have done quite a few things but the opposition could have still been better than us, if we are being honest.”