'Expectations Have Been Raised At West Ham'

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'Expectations Have Been Raised At West Ham'

Phil Parry, from BBC Radio London, believes West Ham United have the quality to follow up their best-ever Premier League points tally with another impressive showing in 2021/22.

2021-08-23T08:02:00.000Z

'Expectations Have Been Raised At West Ham'

Phil Parry, from BBC Radio London, believes West Ham United have the quality to follow up their best-ever Premier League points tally with another impressive showing in 2021/22.

2021-08-23T08:02:00.000Z

'Expectations Have Been Raised At West Ham'

Phil Parry, from BBC Radio London, believes West Ham United have the quality to follow up their best-ever Premier League points tally with another impressive showing in 2021/22.

2021-08-23T08:02:00.000Z

'Expectations Have Been Raised At West Ham'

Phil Parry, from BBC Radio London, believes West Ham United have the quality to follow up their best-ever Premier League points tally with another impressive showing in 2021/22.

2021-08-23T08:02:00.000Z

'Expectations Have Been Raised At West Ham'

Phil Parry, from BBC Radio London, believes West Ham United have the quality to follow up their best-ever Premier League points tally with another impressive showing in 2021/22.

2021-08-23T08:02:00.000Z

- West Ham United host Leicester City at London Stadium on Monday (8pm kick-off)- The two sides were separated by just one place in the 2020/21 Premier League table- Phil Parry, from BBC Radio London, is excited by the encounter in the capital- He also believes the east London outfit can once against challenge high in the table

The Hammers finished sixth in the top flight last term, amassing 65 points in the Premier League, but finished one place below Leicester City, who are the visitors to London Stadium on Monday evening (8pm kick-off).

Speaking ahead of that encounter in the capital, which promises to be an intriguing clash between two sides with high ambitions, Parry spoke to LCFC Radio in an interview which will be included in Monday's episode of Matchday Live.

"The expectations will have been raised because of last year and, despite the lack of movement in the transfer market, I think David Moyes is very happy with what he’s got in his squad," he said. "As a consequence of that, he knows what he’s working with.

"We’ll probably see Saïd Benrahma, for example, emerge even further because I think it took him a while. It took maybe the relationships a while to gel, but at the back end of last season, the West Ham fans saw what they’re going to get from him.

"He’s already started this season and I think he’s a year into being a Hammer, so that’s going to help him. On the whole, if they keep the fitness as high as they possibly can, that group of players have proven what they can do.

"David’s got them organised in a way that he wants to be organised. I think the expectations will be that they should be challenge there or thereabouts. I suppose it depends on what sort of toll Europe takes on them. That’s another factor.

"We’ve still got another couple of weeks and there may be some new faces as well. It’s keeping players as well. Declan [Rice] staying is a big bonus because he’s a player who has a huge amount of potential and is still so young."

Goals from Aaron Cresswell, Saïd Benrahma, Tomáš Souček and Michail Antonio secured a 4-2 comeback success for the Hammers at Newcastle United last weekend and Parry was impressed by the resolve on show from Moyes' men in the North East.

"In many respects, they responded very positively to going behind," he explained. "The impression you got is that Newcastle fans were concerned what West Ham could do and, when they upped the gears and needed to take control of the game, I think they did so really effectively.

"You have to beat the opposition that’s in front of you and I think that West Ham, once they got themselves settled into the game and once they got themselves ahead, didn’t look as though they’d be in doubt.

"There’s a lot of positives and it’s a great way to start the season. They’ve started with a bang and it only heightens, I suppose, that sense of expectation."

When asked to point to West Ham's primary attacking threats, Parry isolated the usual suspects for the east London club. With Souček and Antonio both hitting double figures last season, naturally they were among the players picked out.

"It’s the same players as last year," Parry continued. "We know what Michail Antonio can do. He just doesn’t stop running. He’s got the no.9 on his back now and got goals.

"[Tomáš] Souček in midfield is such an effective player as a midfielder, but he’s one of those great midfielders who gets into goalscoring positions. He’s got height and great physicality and he’s good from set-pieces.

"From a set-piece point of view, they’ve got deliveries. [Aaron] Cresswell delivers well with and Saïd is the type of player that will cause problems as well.

"If it doesn’t work for him first time, or second time, or third time, he’ll keep going. He will keep trying to make a difference. Having seen him over the last couple of years, both at Brentford and at West Ham, he’s one of those players you like to see.

"He is a player who can pull a rabbit out of a hat."

While Moyes will be keen to keep public statements of intent under control, Parry believes West Ham have all the tools they need to once again challenge in the upper regions of the Premier League standings this season - and will see tackling Leicester as a test of those ambitions.

"They’ve got ambition," he added. "Although David Moyes plays it down really effectively, he doesn’t want to overstate challenging for top four, quite rightly he wants to say that they’re still a long way out. He’d say: ‘Talk to me when we’ve got single figures of games to go’.

"Obviously, we then spoke to him about it, but he was open about it. He said: ‘Look, we’re in a good position, let’s go for it’.

"Leicester will maybe be seen as a team and a club that West Ham will aspire to be where they are. They want to challenge and be able to push forward and have an aspiration to challenge that so-called list of big teams.

"It will be seen as a really good test against a side that are also in Europe. It’ll be a test, from the Hammers’ point of view, of where they’ll be.

"It could be a big factor because the move to London Stadium took a bit of getting used to and now they’ve missed it for large periods of time, so I think they’ll relish the games against the big teams. They’ll be proud, actually, of the team that’s being put out.

"That will lift the atmosphere at London Stadium this year so that could be really important for them."

All times BST.

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