West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has urged his players to put up a strong rearguard action against their weekend opponents Crystal Palace in order to win all three points.

The Hammers are currently sitting eighth in the Premier League and are in the running for a spot in Europe come the season’s end. Crystal Palace have undergone a resurgence following the arrival of Alan Pardew at the turn of the year and climbed from the relegation zone into mid-table security.




Allardyce feels that his players need to be patient and clever against the Eagles and that his side cannot afford to be lackadaisical in defence.

“The players have to be patient and really clever and, in transition, we need to remember how well we need to defend”, Allardyce was quoted as saying by the club site at a pre-match press conference.
 


West Ham have drawn each of their last three Premier League outings; they conceded late goals against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, which led to the Hammers squandering their lead and drawing the two matches as a consequence.

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And Allardyce believes the team’s defence has been their “Achilles heel” which they need to rectify.

“That’s been our only Achilles heel recently – the reason we haven’t picked up seven points from our last three games is that we haven’t got enough clean sheets.

“If we had ten clean sheets instead of six, we’d be sitting in the top six or better now.

“In the last three games, we’ve got to the last few seconds and had four points taken away from us and we must make sure we put that right against Palace.”

West Ham will look to collect all three points tomorrow against Crystal Palace in order to stay in the hunt for a place in Europe next season.

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