Slav sees a victory despite Aguero

West-Ham

Bilic claims Aguero is one of the best five strikers in the world but still believes West Ham are doing the double over Manchester City at Upton Park today.

The manager though is wary in the extreme of the main goal threat saying:  “Aguero is back in form and fitness and he’s one of the best five strikers in the world and for me.

“He’s unbelievable, he’s really clever in the box, very patient and has great movement too. He also gets unbelievable service from David Silva, Yaya Toure, Kevin De Bruyne.

“But we are confident and we’ve done it before so we don’t have to just dream of winning games like this.”

The Hammers were under a massive second half siege at the Etihad before coming away with an amazing victory early in the season and Bilic declared: ”

Bilic admits that – unlike in their other shock victories against Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool – the Hammers needed to ride their luck to defeat Manuel Pellegrini’s men earlier this season.

He said: “ We had to defend but we weren’t under waves of threats like we were in the second half against City. For the big majority of the second half they were on the edge of the box.

“You need luck but it’s not just luck it’s the quality of our goalkeeper and centre-halves and others who were throwing their bodies in front of the goal. But City are the best team in the League for me.

“They have a quality that’s amazing – 20 players who are players with class and great quality. They cost a lot of money.

“They are definitely one of favourites to win the League but like other big teams they are not consistent which is not their failure, it shows smaller clubs have close the gap and it’s a very demanding league.”

“If City go out of the Champions League, you are going to say it is about them dropping a level but I think if they go out it is not about their quality, it’s about the demands of the Premier League.

“The fact that you don’t have a break has a big impact on the spring period for teams in the Premier League. The gap of a week or so in Spain and France and three weeks in Germany is very important.

O Picture shows the Irons celebrating during their win at the Etihad

 

 

 

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon