Slaven Bilic has admitted that he is an advocate of a mid winter-break but insists the team will be fully wound up for an assault on the FA Cup tonight.
With the game being shown on BBC One with a kick off time of 7.55 pm at the London Stadium the boss is determined to get past Manchester City in the third round tie.
And with every ticket being sold for the game a red hot atmosphere will ensure the Hammers do not allow the bitter defeat by the other Manchester outfit to affect their performance.
Bilic said: “We want to do our best so that’s why we both sides I’m sure will be fielding strong teams this evening. When I played in the competition and watched it on the TV before I was manager here, for me it has never lost its size.
Of course we have had a busy schedule over Christmas and it could help if we had a week off or a couple of weeks before the game, like you see in Germany, Italy, Spain or wherever. I think it would help the standard of the Premier League and the national team.
On the other hand, I enjoy having those three games in a few days, especially because it is Christmas!
Discussing the Manchester City boss, Slav added: ” Here for Guardiola, it is different to anywhere else he has worked.
He’s never worked in a smaller club, never fought against relegation or mid table or anything other than trying to win the league. With Barcelona and Bayern Munich, it’s the same. Even if they didn’t win in style but still won, sometimes it’s a problem.
In Germany, it was a two horse race but in one year Dortmund were not so good and it wasn’t very interesting. It’s different here. There are about six clubs all going for the title.