Manuel Pellegrini is refusing to set targets but does believe the team is now shaped in his image.
But with just one game behind him he is refusing to be drawn into a guessing game on points, positions and the possibility of Europe.
What we do now however is that he is never happy, given his track record, if he is not competing in the European game and seventh – whether we make it or not – has to be a realistic ambition.
However, in claiming the side “is feeling like a Manuel Pellegrini team” sees him with his head probably on the block for anything than worse than seventh or eighth will surely leave him to be shot at as a result.
It’s such talk that make matches against the likes of Brighton, which were very much an Achiilles heel last season, so important.
The last campaign was a developmental season whereas this time around he needs to ensure we are at it from the first minute of every game and getting the results required from games such as Saturday.
Talking https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2019/august/15-august/pellegrini-brighton-improvements-and-building-his-team he said: “Now we are in our second season I believe this side is feeling like a Manuel Pellegrini team. It wasn’t easy in the first year because we changed a lot of things, but we finished the season in the way that I wanted.
My hope that this season we are going to improve on what we did last season. We are not talking about being in a European spot, we are just trying to improve on what we did, and that comes from the way we are playing; we must play better.
Now we must just try to win the next game that we play. We know that here in the Premier League you have a lot of important teams, and teams like West Ham, so we are not thinking about what our achievements will be in May. We must demonstrate in every game what we are able to do.”