David Moyes is looking forward to what promises to be a mouth-watering London derby on Sunday afternoon, with West Ham United and Chelsea set to battle for three crucial points in the race for European qualification.
The Hammers make the short trip across London to Stamford Bridge two points adrift of the Blues, who beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 on Thursday night to move into eighth place in the Premier League table having played one game fewer.
Mauricio Pochettino's men have found their form of late following a tricky start, and having progressed to the final of the EFL Cup, and the semi-finals of the FA Cup, they have been defeated in just one of their last eleven outings in the league.
In his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, Moyes hailed his Argentine counterpart for the commendable job he's done since being appointed in May 2023 and acknowledged the tough task that lies ahead of his players this weekend.
A consistent top-half placing and a run to the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals represents a strong season for his own side however, and with the carrot of a fourth successive continental campaign still alive, the manager is determined to finish 2023/24 with a flourish.
All to play for
It’s an important game on Sunday, but only as important as the other 35 we’ve already played. You get the same three points for a win in every match. The time of year makes these games important, and we’ll do our best to get a result.
We’re playing Chelsea, who have enjoyed lots of success in recent years, and won many trophies. It says a lot that we’re competing with them for a European place, and I think for us to be where we are with three games to go is good, after just coming out of Europe, where we’ve been for the last three years.
We’re in a tight league position, as we have been all season. We’re going to have to do our best in each remaining game to stay there, and hopefully jump up a place or two.
Tough place to go
There are a lot of tough grounds to go to in the Premier League, and Stamford Bridge is definitely one of those. Chelsea have had great teams under the likes of José Mourinho, and they’ve been really hard to beat, but we’ll go there and do everything we can to get the win.
Chelsea might have wanted to be higher in the league than they are at the moment, but they've been in the FA Cup semi-final recently, and they got to the final of the EFL Cup, so I think it's still been a good year for them and they've shown their quality.
We beat them when we played them at London Stadium, in what was a really strong start to the season. Unfortunately for us, they’ve started to hit a bit of form at a time when we didn’t want them to hit good form. We have them to play, and we know they’ve been playing well in recent weeks.
Top Poch
I think Mauricio has had a difficult job. Chelsea brought in a lot of new players, and a lot of young players, and he’s had to fit them in and try to get them used to the Premier League. He’s got a good, up-and-coming team, and I think they’ll keep improving as they go along.
He's one of the finest managers there is. He’s managed top clubs and will continue to manage top clubs, and Chelsea should be really thankful they’ve got a top manager.
I’ve gone up against him many times, when he’s been at Southampton and Tottenham as well. He’s a really nice man, and a really good coach, so I look forward to lining up against him as I always do.
A possible Premier League spending cap
I’ve always hoped that money wouldn’t be the biggest thing in football. Leicester City won the league a few years ago and I think that really gave everyone the feeling that anything was possible. You’ve seen different teams challenging for Europe as well, like West Ham, and I think you always want football to give teams a chance. If it’s solely down to money, I don’t know if you’d get bored of it in the end.
I hope there is a cap. I hope there’s something that does control spending in the Premier League. I’m not an expert in it so I wouldn’t be able to advise how you’d go about doing that, but because I’m a football man I want the game to give everyone an opportunity to have success.
