Manuel Pellegrini wants to see his West Ham players start delivering the goods like a top six team would when they meet Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Hammers had gone under the radar a bit in the first few weeks of the season but have come to the fore since seeing off Norwich City in emphatic fashion despite only winning 2-0.
They played in front of the TV cameras for the 0-0 draw with Aston Villa on Monday and night to stretch their unbeaten run in the league to four games, five i8n all competitions.
The cameras will be on Pellegrini's team again this weekend for the Sunday afternoon kick off against the Reds at London Stadium and despite drawing against Villa, many pundits are starting to see why the Hammers could make a run at the top seven this season.
Both United and the Hammers are in a group of six teams that sit on eight points in the table as it stands chasing European football for next season and Pellegrini has admitted he likes his pl,ayers' mentality in the early stages of the campaign.
When asked if he agrees with his players, Declan Rice being one of them, openly talking about getting a European spot in 2020, Pellegrini said: "Yes and no. Both.
"Because I like that the players have an ambitious mentality, a winning mentality, and believe that they can do important things, so I always try to talk with them that it’s a target that we must have in our mind and we must fight for them in every game. So no in that sense.
"If we demonstrate playing with ten players like we did in the last game against Aston Villa, we continue playing attacking, and we continue playing consistently and as a solid team, then of course we are we will demonstrate that.
"But not with words, with actions."
One again, the manager stressed the importance of West Ham's home form at London Stadium if they are to harbour any Europa League aspirations for next season.
The Hammers have lost just one of their last nine Premier League outings, that was the opening weekend loss to Man City in Stratford - their last defeat before that on home turf was a 2-0 reverse against Everton on March 30.
"Every game or every point that you don’t lose at home is better for you," Pellegrini added.
"You see the statistics for all the teams, the most amount of points you have are at home. We are doing well playing away but we need to be a string team playing in our stadium."
