West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke has admitted that his side were beaten by a better team in their 3-1 defeat to Swansea City.

A Miguel Michu goal and a brace from Wayne Routledge was enough to give the Welsh outfit all three points in a match they dominated.

"We started slowly and got punished, and got punished by the better team. We did not get out of the blocks," BBC Sport quotes Clarke as saying.

"It is not the first time Shane Long has been left on the bench and Romelu Lukaku did better in the second half than the first. The goal gave us a glimmer of hope and now we move on to the next game.

"At 3-0 down you are a long way from getting anything from the game. Swansea are a really good team and we knew it would be difficult and they proved that."

The loss sees West Brom drop to fourth in the Premier League table, while Michael Laudrup's Swansea climb to seventh.