David Moyes gave his final post match press conference of the Premier League season after the draw against Villa

Asked to reflect on the final game.

I am thrilled for how well our players have done. We didn’t play as well today as we have done but it was always going to be a tight game and thank goodness our players took us to a situation where we didn’t need to consider today’s game as much as we would have done.

From that point of view, I am pleased with the players. They have done really, really well. Their performances against Chelsea here, getting a point at Manchester United. It is only praise for the players.

Optimistic for next season?

I think we’ve set better standards, some of the young players have really shown what they are capable of and we are looking forward to how good they can become and the future ahead with them. We have got five or six really talented boys around the team, we’ve got some experienced players as well so I am looking forward to seeing how they go. Hopefully we can pick it up and get on with it.

Plans for the summer?

I think you have got to remember that the club spent £200million [recently]. We’ll try and add to it if we can, if we can’t we’ll go with what we’ve got and there are a lot who can improve and a lot who have since lockdown, Micky Antonio is an example of that. We’ll try and get the best out of the players and if we can add to it we will do.

Declan Rice, what is next for him?

He’s under contract and he’s going on holiday as far as I know, hopefully he’ll be selected for England as well and he’ll be back with us for pre-season in three weeks.

How are your pre-season plans looking?

Yeah we’ve just sort of pulled things together in the last week. We’re still waiting on final bits on exactly where we might go and what it might be but we have got the main bits in place with return dates and testing for when they all come back.

Where does this compare to last time?

I feel this one has been a lot tougher. There has been a lot of expectation on West Ham this time. There always will be because it is a well supported, big London club but the expectation is there because there was a lot of money spent over the years and the team should be higher up the league.

But, you tend to finish where you deserve to be [in the league] and we have to make sure we improve on that if we can.

Also, the teams at the bottom of the league this time made it much more competitive, as you could see today there were three teams going for it and we only got ourselves safe on Wednesday so it has been a tough haul.

Us winning and drawing the last two, playing well in the last four actually, has been very very good. Apart from the opening games of lockdown, we only had one defeat and we were unlucky not to get a draw from it [Burnley].