West Ham United manager David Moyes has challenged his players to demonstrate their top-tier aspirations when they travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on Saturday afternoon.
The Irons will arrive at the Theatre of Dreams two points ahead of the Red Devils in the Premier League table, albeit having played a game more.
And with Moyes keen for his players to consistently challenge the league's traditionally high-ranking teams, including his former club Manchester United, the Hammers' manager has called on his squad to show what they are truly capable of come 3pm on Saturday at Old Trafford...
It’s certainly helped this week having the extra days’ recovery.
It was very quick between the three games we had last week. Having a few days’ recovery has been good for us, and hopefully it shows on Saturday.
Our idea is to try and challenge the top four teams in the league.
We don’t necessarily see ourselves as quite there yet, but we want to try and challenge them and have a good go at hanging in there.
We missed out last year by two points, so the challenge to the players this season was to get those extra two points which might make it this time.
Let’s be fair, the level of competition for those spots is very strong. Over recent years, it’s been quite a regular group of teams who have been there, with maybe the likes of Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur too.
It’s not an easy group to break into. We’re going to keep trying to hang in there, and see where we end up.
There haven’t been many managers over the years who have gone to Old Trafford at a time their team is above Manchester United in the Premier League.
You think about when Sir Alex Ferguson was manager there, and how hard it was for anybody to get ahead of Manchester United then.
I’m pleased we’re back in front of them, but what really matters is us getting three points on Saturday, and that we’re ahead of them come the end of the season.
At this time of the season, it doesn’t really matter that much.
The West Ham United Board have supported me greatly.
They’ve said to me 'Go and get what you need if you can, David' but, like anything else, players are expensive in this window at the moment.
There’s also not a great pool of players available. In the positions we’re looking for, we’ve found it quite difficult to identify and get ones who we think could come in and make a difference in this window immediately.
In the last January windows, we’ve been able to do that. This window’s felt a bit more difficult, but if things go right, I’m still hopeful that we’ll add a couple of players before the window closes.
Manchester United are a brilliant club and it was a great job for me to have.
I’m more disappointed in myself that I couldn’t do a better job in my period there, but overall, as everybody’s seen, Manchester United have had some of the best managers in the world, even in recent years, and it’s a tough job.
It happens in football – you don’t always get it right or win all the games you should do at times – but I look back at it with really fond memories.
I took over from Sir Alex Ferguson, which was a really difficult task, but I was really fortunate to be offered the job.
Not many people get offered the Manchester United job, and to get offered it in the first place tells you exactly how you’re thought of.
Since his miss against Manchester United in September, Mark Noble’s taken three penalties for us and scored all three.
Mark Noble has got one of the best goalscoring percentages of any player in Europe from the penalty spot, so the decision to bring him on [to take an injury-time penalty in the 2-1 defeat to the Red Devils in the reverse league fixture] was a big call, it really was.
I didn’t enjoy my own company for a few days after it because I beat myself up about it, but when you’re a football manager you have to make decisions. Sometimes you get them right and sometimes you get them wrong.
On the day, I got this one wrong, but I still think the real reasons for doing it were the right ones, and if we’re being fair, Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea has been playing out of his skin this season and made a great penalty save that day.
I was thinking we’d get a draw out of it right at the end, but on the day it didn’t quite work.
Old Trafford has never been an easy place for any team to go, and it never has been.
We have to go there with confidence. It’s a really big game for us, because I feel that we’ve got a chance to go and show our credentials, and show that we can be challenging up against the top six or seven teams again this season. As we always expect, Manchester United will be up near the top. It’ll be a good game.
I feel as if it’s a chance for us to go and show what we can do.
After our 1-0 win there in the Carabao Cup earlier this season, I’m confident.