David Moyes gave his Manchester City pre-match virtual press conference yesterday morning at 9.30 am

Below the transcript and the full video.

Injury news and will Said Benrahma be involved?

At the moment we have got everybody in pretty good order. Seb Haller picked up an injury in training before the last game but he has trained so we expect him to be available this weekend.

Said is doing well. He needs to get up to speed with what we want and where we are at so it has given me the opportunity to take a bit more time with him but I have said the same before with the boys from the Championship, I am not in ahy rush to put them in.

I like to give them opportunities at the right time.

Got to bring your players back down to earth after the Spurs game?

Yeah but I’d rather my players be high than low. The players were magnificent, to score three goals in the last ten minutes, score a goal like we did, they should enjoy it and why shouldn’t we?

But it only got us a point, we wanted three but we still got something from what looked like we were not gonit to get anyway.

Your thoughts on the European breakaway league?

I think the Champions League is a really good format, I can only guess this is all to do with money. The one good thing the Premier League does, and what I learnt in Spain, was that most of the money from the TV goes to Real Madrid and Barcelona and then the rest of the clubs get their appropriate amount going down.

That’s the last thing we want in the Premier League because the one thing I will say is everybody gets the same at the start, the same amount of money, obviously the bigger club might get some extra from TV but at least at the start we try to be fair.

If we then get into the situation where certain clubs are going to have so much more than others then it is going to make the competition worse, at the moment there is still the doubt of how some games can go and their outcome so I hope it doesn’t happen.

I think that Celtic and Rangers should have been joining the Premier League but that is not going to be the case, those two clubs up there are huge and I think it would have been great.

Ten defeats in a row against City, six conceding four or more goals, need a psychological change?

We have to change it, we have to be good to change it.

We are an improving team and so are Manchester City though you have to say they have had incredible investment, changed the club to make them one of the best, if not the best, in the world at time so it has not been easy for any club to play them but I would like to give them a good game if we can.

How do you approach a game like City with risk versus reward

This time of the season we are not really sure where results are going just yet. We saw Leciester get a really good result against City but they counterattacked, had three penalties, so it is the way football is.

Manchester City are improving from their start to the season but then so are we, ouur games have shown improvement from the start to where we are now, maybe even before lockdown, so we hope to give them a pretty good game. They make it difficult for you but I hope we can give them more problems than what we have done in the past.

Do old rivalries still link with you? Liverpool and City to come in your next two games and you’ve managed on the opposite rival side

Yeah I think so but at the moment, I am only concentrating on the group we have. I have to say how well the players have played here and how they have improved and that has given me confidence to go and take other teams on.

I want to do what I have done in the past with my other teams and that is being in and around the European positions so my aim and ambition for the future is to get West Ham in the same position.

Where does Benrahma fit into your team and he could come up against another Algerian in Riyad Mahrez this weekend

There is a difference between them whereas Mahrez came from the Champions of England in Leicester City when he went to Mancehster whereas we have Said Benrahma coming in from the Championship, developing him and looking if he can step up the levels required.

We are trying to get him going a little bit quicker, get him moving and what is to be expected.I have worked with a lot of championship player over the years so I will take my time with him, bring him on when he is ready and get him in a good condition to start to then play well when he does.

What’s changed since Newcastle and you mentioned European aspirations as well?

First thing I have to say is we didn’t play well against Newcastle but we felt good long before that and had a good pre-season, played well in the friendlies, and after lockdown we were one of the better teams. So there’s been a growing change. Obviously the recent results have been terrific and coming from 3-0 down against Tottenham shows a never say die attitude amongst the players.

We’ve got to try and keep going. I think there’s been a lot of improvements but there’s still a lot to do. The point I made about Europe was at Everton we tried every year to be competing for European football. My ambition with West Ham is that is where I’d like to go but we’re a long way from that at the moment.

Talked about Rangers and Celtic down here, cause problems in Scotland?

Yeah and I think that’s something that’s a big consideration but as someone who comes from Scotland, I think both Celtic and Rangers are completely underestimated in what they would bring to a league. I think having them and their level of support would be good for the Premier League. That’s my opinion.

Yes it would effect Scottish football, just like the effect would come if some so-called bigger clubs went into a European league. We wouldn’t necessarily like that.

I’ve been hoping for 40 or 50 years that Rangers and Celtic might get into the Premier League so why suddenly can we change the dynamics of the set-up of the English leagues and go to a European League. Surely it couldn’t be done that quickly.

Transcript credit: Sam Inkensol/Football.London