After spending nine years clad in sky blue, Pablo Zabaleta admits Sunday’s home meeting with his old side Manchester City will feel a little odd, but he is ready to play his part in attempting to upset the odds at London Stadium.
Manchester City have already been crowned Premier League champions and are hunting down a series of records and Zabaleta is full of admiration for Pep Guardiola’s side – but insists the Hammers can still get a result.
The Argentinean has enjoyed an excellent debut season in east London – he was voted third in the Hammer of the Year award this week – and wants to end it on a high by securing safety as soon as possible.
“It’s going to be weird to play against my old team,” he admitted. ‘’I know most of the lads, the staff and everyone, but I’m a West Ham player now and I want to win the game of course because we need the three points. We will fight for that.
“Nothing is impossible in football – we are approaching this game thinking anything can happen if we perform well.
“We have done it before, but we know that even though they are already champions they won’t come to London Stadium relaxing.
“We’ve been training well this week, thinking we need almost the perfect game to beat Man City, so let’s see if we can get something from it.
“It has been a tough season for us and we haven’t found the consistency that you need in this league.
“We are still not safe, but we have four games left before the end of the season. We probably need one more win and we need to keep focused on our all games. Hopefully we can perform well enough to get the points we need to be safe.