West Ham boss Slaven Bilic insists his relationship with chairman David Sullivan is fine.
But that did not stop Bilic fearing he was heading for the same fate as Frank de Boer at Crystal Palace had his side lost a fourth straight match.
As it was, second-half goals from Pedro Obiang - via a huge deflection - and Andre Ayew secured a 2-0 win over Huddersfield and West Ham's first points of the season.
The build-up to the game was dominated by Bilic's dispute with joint-owner Sullivan over West Ham's dealings - or lack of them - on deadline day.
Bilic had said Sullivan 'likes to talk' after the joint-owner, involved in a row with Sporting Lisbon over a failed move for William Carvalho, claimed the Croatian had turned down the chance to sign Renato Sanches and Grzegorz Krychowiak.
And the pressure was cranked up further on Monday with the news that Palace had axed de Boer following their fourth consecutive defeat.
But Bilic insisted: "I never said a bad word about the chairman and I never will.
"Yes I said some things - at the end of the day I'm 49 - I said them, and I wasn't drunk.
"I said nothing bad about the chairman, on the contrary I said we did good business, we wanted one more player and that the story from Sporting is not true as far as I know. I defended him.
"Was de Boer's sacking on my mind? It was, I ain't going to lie. I've been in football since I was 18, so I know.
"To be fair I came to the zone where I don't care about that, but not in a negative way, I care about the team and that's what I've been focused on. The other things are irrelevant."
Tom Ince hit the crossbar for Huddersfield but they slipped to their first loss of the season and boss David Wagner admitted: "It was a deserved defeat.
"The positive thing is we have another game on Saturday (against Leicester). But I don't like defeats and I don't take positives out of them."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article