Eight days, three games. Three wins and five goals scored.
Progression up the Premier League table, a point away from qualifying from the UEFA Europa League group stages, and a solid victory over your local rivals to boot.
West Ham United supporters have certainly had a lot to celebrate in recent days!
And celebrate they did – in person this season, much to defender Aaron Cresswell’s delight, as the Hammers recorded back-to-back home victories against Tottenham Hotspur after Michail Antonio stabbed home the left-back’s corner inside the final quarter of the game.
Like the 60,000-strong Claret and Blue Army inside London Stadium on Sunday afternoon, who could cheer for a victory which brought West Ham into the Premier League’s top four, Cresswell could celebrate, in his own words, “a perfect week.”
“There’s no better feeling,” he told West Ham TV. “We beat them last year here, but we had no fans here.
“That was the disappointing thing last season – we beat them at home, 2-1, and to have no fans there was disappointing, but I’m sure they loved it today.
“To have 60,000 here today, 1-0 win, clean sheet… and the manner of the game, we defended for our lives at times, stuck in, showed great team spirit – and yeah, a fantastic day.
“We’ve played three games in eight days against that [calibre of] opposition. Everton away is always a tough place to go, and I thought we outplayed Everton on the day and deserved more than one goal.
On Thursday night, against Genk, we won 3-0 in the Europa League, and then in a London derby today, 1-0 against Tottenham. It’s a perfect week.”
For the fourth occasion in that sequence, Cresswell picked up an assist with a pinpoint delivery from a set-piece, having previously set up Angelo Ogbonna in the 1-0 win at Everton and Craig Dawson and Issa Diop in the 3-0 win over KRC Genk.
“Another assist!” he smiled, before modestly adding: “But the main thing is the points, having the three points on the board.
“If I can get assists and help the team, that’s what I want to try and do, but I want to first and foremost defend and then, if we can get assists or add goals to help the team in any way, we will.”
The Hammers’ recent results also provide plenty of cause to celebrate, with nine wins and seven clean sheets in 13 games in all competitions this season.
Yet David Moyes’ men remain united and focused, keeping their feet on the ground while operating as a team unit in pursuit of their goal of building on last season’s sixth-placed finish in the Premier League.
Cresswell explained: “I think as I mentioned before, the team spirit that we’ve got amongst us, anyone that comes down to the training ground will see that after one day.
“The togetherness, the team spirit is fantastic, and I think that shows in our performances and the way we play at times. I think that takes us a long way, so we need to keep that up.
“That’s what we want to do [finish in the top four]. We’re not going to kid ourselves and say how easy it is, because it’s certainly not. It’s one of the toughest leagues in the world to break into that top four with the money that those boys spend.
“It’s going to be really tough, but why can’t we have a go? Look, we’re not sitting here and setting targets, aiming for that fourth spot.
“We finished sixth last season and that’s the benchmark. It’s an old cliché, but we want to take each game as it comes.”