Rice: A win at Burnley will get us back in the right direction

Declan Rice in training


Declan Rice believes a win at Burnley on Saturday could be the catalyst to get his West Ham United team looking back up the Premier League table.

The Hammers head to Turf Moor 13th in the table, but only three points behind sixth-placed Sheffield United, so Rice is firmly focused on bridging that gap.

He was frustrated by the team’s missed opportunities to establish themselves in the top half of the Premier League standings in recent games against the Blades, Crystal Palace and Newcastle United, but believes they are well-equipped to return to top form.

"100 per cent [we can aim for the top six],” he said. “I think if you look from fifth to about 13th, there's about four points between six or seven teams.

"So you just have to keep working hard. If we beat Burnley on the weekend you're back up to seventh or eighth, so it's not that far away.

“[The recent run] has been very frustrating. I think every player is feeling the same, the manager is feeling the same.

"Our confidence was so high at the start of the season. We're going through a little blip now, it happens to every team. It's about how we get out of it.

"We need to be more confident on the pitch, we need to be more defensively structured and we need to take our chances because in games we've had chances to kill the game off.”