Manuel Pellegrini was in confident, positive yet realistic mood when he faced the media ahead of Friday’s Premier League fixture at Brighton & Hove Albion.
The West Ham United manager has guided his team to seven points from a possible nine in the Premier League and an 8-0 Carabao Cup thrashing of Macclesfield Town in the last fortnight.
But the Chilean is experienced enough to know that the Hammers have achieved nothing yet and, with 31 league matches still to play, there is plenty of work still to do if his side are to enjoy a successful 2018/19 season.
We are improving, but we must continue to work
I feel we are improving but I don’t know if we are in our best moment but, when you compare what we did in the last weeks, playing the three games at home, when you compare with the start of the season, of course we are improving.
But we must be careful in this moment and we need to continue improving because in the Premier League every game is very difficult.
I am happy with the reaction to our recent performances, but when the results were not good, I never felt any protests from the fans. I think they trusted a lot in what we were doing.
I also trust a lot in the way I work and I was absolutely sure that the team was going to play well.
That’s why, when so many people demand change, the best change that we could do was to keep things exactly the same.
When I am asked when the turning point was for us, I don’t know if the word is ‘was’ because maybe the turning point must continue. I don’t think, because we beat Manchester United, that we are in our top level.
We are in a position in the table that I don’t like to be in. We need to continue working as every game is different and has difficult things to work out, so I don’t think we must play against Brighton thinking we are going to win because we beat Manchester United.
We must be the team again that we were last week.
Maybe Marko was always a No9!
People have asked about Marko Arnautovic’s successful conversion from a winger to a striker, but maybe he was a No9 who was converted into a winger and now he returned to that position!
As a centre forward, of course you need to make different movements to create the space and I think Marko has a lot of power himself, so he can do it.
I think he will continue improving as he can give more. He can score more. He must have a complete season as last season he had just a half and this season he has started very well, even with the problem in his knee.
Always to be a top player you need to try to score in every game throughout the whole season.
Settled Brighton will be a difficult opponent
From what I saw in the previous games, Brighton is a team that will play with a lot of intensity and a team that has played with the same manager for a couple of years, so it’s a difficult team and we know we need to play a good game.
We always expect a difficult game against every team for different reasons.
Brighton beat West Ham twice last season, but the past is the past and every game is different, so I don’t think we need to be thinking about that.
We must allow Declan Rice to make his own decisions
I was asked if Declan Rice had come to me and asked for advice about his current situation. I can say I am always talking with all the players and with Declan also.
He's a young player and maybe we need to give him time to make a difficult decision about his international future which is not easy, especially when you have both sides, England and Ireland, so near for your family.
So, we must not pressure him about his contract or for which country he will play. He needs time and for me he is in the correct way.
Declan can be a top player maybe in some time more. He is learning a lot and always listening and asking what he can improve. He is very young but I think he has a huge future.