Dyer - The players have set the standard

players
Evening Standard football reporter Ken Dyer is confident the Hammers can build on their victory over Crystal Palace and get back on the winning trail at London Stadium this weekend.

Dyer feels the players had a major point to prove at Selhurst Park last weekend and will want to keep that winning feeling going ahead of another big week for the east London Club....

I thought Slaven was fairly upbeat in his pre-match press conference and had good news surrounding the return of Andre Ayew.

But he was less optimistic about Andy Carroll so we gain on one player but miss out on another.

I get the impression that he is still contemplating what system to use on Saturday as he will be missing Aaron Cresswell through suspension.

He will certainly miss Aaron's pace up and down the left hand side and with Arthur Masuaku also ruled out through injury, there are not many alternatives who can play there.

He said on paper he has a few options, but actually doing it out on the pitch are two different things.

I think that he wants to stick with that system but he could also revert to a normal back four.

He could play Ogbonna at left back and Nordtveit at right back, but he has been very unlucky with injuries to the full-backs.

When I come down to write Slaven's column he has been saying consistently that the results have been affecting the players but they are staying all together.

For some reason it has not been happening during games but it seemed as if the players collectively thought they have had enough and said it is going to stop now.

That was apparent during the game against Crystal Palace and everyone put a real shift in from the defence who were superb right through to Zaza upfront who worked really hard and that brought the result.

There have been a lot of discussions about London Stadium but that will all go away if the Club start winning games.

The result last weekend was great but they need to build on that now and with the table being so tight you can move into the top half with a few good results.

One of the key factors on Saturday will be stopping Jermain Defoe. He has great movement.

It looked as if his career was winding down when he made the move to Toronto but he has come back and looks just as sharp as he always has done.

Slaven said to me in the week that his movement is so good and even when the ball is on the halfway line he is looking to make space and you cannot switch off against him.

We know the schedule gets a lot more difficult for West Ham in November so they will be looking for a good result against Sunderland and then they have another big game against Chelsea in the EFL Cup.

All the West Ham fans love a good cup tie and the cup competitions are very important to the Hammers.

On the basis of what I saw last Saturday against Crystal Palace I am confident West Ham will get another victory on Saturday and the players will want to give that kind of performance again.

They set the standard last weekend and will want to achieve that again, if not go one better.