David Moyes has dismissed fears that West Ham United will be relegated from the Premier League by saying he is "sure" the club will avoid the drop.
And the Hammers boss, speaking to the media ahead of Sunday's hugely important clash with Southampton has charged his players with scoring the goals that will secure safety.Asked whether he had considered what points tally would be sufficient to guarantee safety, Moyes replied: "Well, I've not worked it out, but there's nine or ten teams who could be involved in the bottom end of the table.
"We are one of them, unfortunately. We hoped that we wouldn’t be, but we are. We have to find a way of making sure that we’re safe come the end of the season - and I’m sure we will be.
"I think the players are ready. I think we’re in a good frame of mind and we’re ready to go and hopefully, to go on and try and pick up the points to make sure that we’re not near the bottom end of the league.
"Quite often teams have broken away and not so many teams are fighting it out. In the Premier League there's very little difference among a lot of the teams.
"Of course we've got two or three outstanding teams at the top but maybe after that not a great deal between the teams. If you get some wins early in the season you feel better, we didn't and now we're playing catch-up."
As for the challenge posed by the Saints, who will arrive at the London Stadium bottom of the table, Moyes belives the process of securing victory is a simple one. "We’ve got to score goals and not concede any. It's simple," he said.
"We must concentrate on winning the game - the most important thing is to win the game. How we do that in many ways doesn't matter. We've got to get those wins under our belt.
"We are in a really important stage of the season. We have lots of games [coming up] and a difficult set of fixtures, three games in six days. We have to get everything we can from them."
And when asked about the threat posed by key man James Ward-Prowse, a player targeted by Moyes last summer, the manager insisted he was more concerned by his own team's performance.
"I don't know enough about James Ward Prowse except for what I see," responded the boss. "You are probably better off asking the Southampton manager about him.
"Obviously we'll prepare our team to try to put Southampton under pressure. What I do know about James Ward Prowse is he's a really good footballer and incredibly good set-piece taker, and by all accounts a really good lad as well. But I'm more interested in how we perform."
Finally Moyes called upon the Hammers faithful to drive the team to victory in what should prove to be a pivotal fixture in West Ham's fight for survival.
"If ever we’ve need it [the fans' support], it’s coming up to the period," he admitted. "We’ve got a lot of home games coming up.
"We've got nine games in April, it's going to take a lot out of the players. Anything the supporters can give will certainly add to the performance and the effort the players will put in."
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