West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has delivered his team news ahead of this weekend’s clash against Crystal Palace.
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“But I knew we would really have to make it clear to PSG and Yohan that we were coming for him”.
Since the game against Spurs, Palace have thrashed Charlton Athletic in the League Cup before battling to wins over Watford and West Bromwich Albion, but a hard finish to October will push the squad to the limit as the club looks to prove that it is capable of challenging for European qualification.
Palace have made an impressive start to the season and are fourth in the Premier League going into the weekend’s fixtures, just three points behind leaders Manchester City and having defeated West Brom 2-0 in their final game before the global break.
Crystal Palace will be without the injured Connor Wickham and Joel Ward against West Ham on Saturday.
“As soon as I was appointed manager (of West Ham) in 2011 the big debate was whether I would follow the “West Ham way”, which nobody could define, but, whatever it was, I apparently didn’t play it”.
West Ham have the best shot conversion rate in the top-flight this season (23%).
Palace have been boosted by the return of Damien Delaney, Mile Jedinak, Jordon Mutch and Lee Chung-yong to training.
Left-back Aaron Cresswell, 25, and defender Winston Reid, 27, have minor knocks and are rated at 50/50 for Saturday.
“The fans have always been great. Every one of their attackers runs behind without the ball”.
“I’m sure it’ll be a great game and a very hard test for us”.
Moses – pictured during his Palace days – went to school a few streets away from Selhurst Park and was given his breakthrough into the professional game by the club.
– West Ham’s Dimitri Payet has had a hand in 14 goals (five goals, nine assists) in his last 16 league appearances (Premier League and Ligue 1 combined).
“West Ham have a bigger and stronger squad than us”.
“You can’t stop them most of the time and that’s why they are good players”.
Alan Pardew insists his focus remains entirely on his role at Crystal Palace but he has admitted that as an Englishman the possibility of one day taking up the reins of the national side would be enticing.
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– 15 of the 18 goals in games featuring Crystal Palace this season have come after half-time (both scored and conceded).
