Sunderland have been handed a triple injury boost, ahead of this weekend’s clash with Sam Allardyce’s former club West Ham.
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The Black Cats travel to West Ham United’s Upton Park for the final time on Saturday in good heart and good health. “The fans, and everyone connected with the club, should appreciate him”, said Bilic.
“I had a lot of time for the players and they gave me everything they could, so I couldn’t ask for anymore than that”.
Neither West Ham nor Allardyce were desperate to extend his tenure at the club, with the ex-Bolton boss unsure whether he wanted to continue in the dug-out.
“Diafra has obviously been out for three months and will need a bit more time, while Andy and Winston will hope to play some part in the games that we have got coming up next week”.
“The withdrawal symptoms started to happen and the adrenaline kicked in to come into this hard position at Sunderland, which I can hopefully take them out of”.
West Brom boss Tony Pulis: “You have to accept that if you’re not putting in performances the supporters want and what they expect then they’re going to let you know”.
“I never played against any West Ham team that played football I was afraid of. To take criticism, you have to accept that”. They were always surviving, or lucky as hell against us.
However, the Black Cats are just a point from safety following a 2-2 draw at Liverpool and their surprise 2-1 win over Manchester United last time out.
After all, Sam Allardyce’s team come into this fixture off the back of their first ever Premier League win at home against Manchester United last weekend and they have posted a solid W3-D2-L1 record through the course of their last seven league fixtures. I think they’ve been very lenient with our players, compared to West Ham’s. “All the others [West Ham managers] have had the same amount of stick as I had over the years”.
Defenders Younes Kaboul (ankle) and Billy Jones (hip) plus midfielders Jan Kirchhoff (hamstring) and Sebastian Larsson (knee) are all fit and back in contention for Sunderland’s game at West Ham on Saturday. Even when we’ve not been winning games at home, what I’ve tried to show is that the players are really committed to getting the results, even if we haven’t been.
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“It wasn’t the way we would have chosen it but in the end, we went up via the play-offs, and if you win, there is no better way to win promotion”.
