Tomkins standing firm

James Tomkins has been a pivotal part of the Hammers good run of late - culminating in his man of the match display against Birmingham City.

The England Under-21 defender is enjoying a positive campaign and is determined to make sure the season finishes positively for his team as well.

"I feel like I'm coming along. The more games I play, I'm getting better and better. I'm learning more and getting more experienced. The experienced lads are helping me along the way. I'm just enjoying playing at the minute and hopefully I can keep improving more and more.

"I feel like I'm growing up a lot more this year and it's important that I keep doing my best for the team and enjoying my football."

The centre-back said there was no reason why the side could not aim to continue their run of three straight home wins after the success against Wolves, Barnsley and Birmingham City - with just one goal against in that time. Arsenal arrive on Saturday but Tomkins will not be overawed.

"We have to keep plugging away and trying to get results because we don't want to be where we are in the table. We need to concentrate on getting victories. We're in the bottom three and we need results - that's the most important thing for this club.

"We go out confident that we can get a good result. Arsenal are a good team but we held out well at the Emirates. If we can do that again, who knows what can happen? It'll be a hard task but we're obviously looking forward to it."