Slaven Bilic urges West Ham to dent Tottenham's title hopes

Slaven Bilic wants West Ham to hammer an early dent in Tottenham’s title ambitions.

Bilic’s side effectively ended their rivals’ hopes last season with a 1-0 win at the London Stadium in May.

With that derby victory still fresh in the mind, the Hammers boss wants a repeat performance against the team he concedes is the best footballing side in the Premier League.

“For me they are the team that plays the most attractive football and for me they are definitely one of the contenders to win the league,” he said.

“They have patterns, they have individual quality, they have pace and they are a team building up for three years now, they are improving the team.

“That for me makes them maybe the best team, or the most attractive definitely.

“We always put a special kind of performance against them. Okay it is a derby and all that, and my wish and the key is to get those kind of performances whoever we play against.

“But it is a special atmosphere, we all remember those performances, the fans and the players and everyone involved talks for months after the game.

“We still remember the game in May. Those are the patterns that we want to repeat on Saturday.

“If we repeat everything – because against them you need a complete performance – then we have a chance.”

Bilic has seen the pressure surrounding his position ease following three games unbeaten, and three clean sheets.

West Ham grabbed their first win of the season at home to Huddersfield, battled to a goalless draw at West Brom and then eased past Bolton 3-0 in the Carabao Cup.

“Now we are stabilised,” he added.

“We went step by step, first we focused on basic things – stop the opponent conceding or creating chances for 90 minutes, keep the shape no matter what the result is or the minute of the game.

“Now the confidence is back, you can feel it and we want to build on that.”

Source: PA


Published at Thu, 21 Sep 2017 15:51:16 +0000