West Ham United boss Manuel Pellegrini has told the Hammers they must try to earn maximum points from their remaining games and insists they cannot settle for a ninth-place finish in the Premier League.
The Hammers have enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes since losing their first four games of the Premier League season under Pellegrini back in August.
Despite their wretched start, West Ham recovered steadily and now find themselves fighting for seventh place in the league table alongside Wolves and Watford with just eight games to go.
The east Londoners are five points adrift of Wolves, who occupy the final Europa League qualification spot, and could reduce the gap, if they win against bottom-placed Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
And ahead of their meeting with the Terriers, Pellegrini has told his players they must not be happy with settling for a ninth-place finish in the Premier League this season.
The Chilean insisted West Ham must try to win as many points as they can from the remaining eight games rather than being happy with a top-half finish in ninth.
“I don’t think we must be happy in ninth position”, Pellegrini said in a press conference.
“As a manager, player or club you must demand more.
"We try to win as many points as we can in the next eight games.”
The Hammers suffered an away defeat at relegation battlers Cardiff City last time around and Pellegrini has admitted his team must work on curing their strange form away from home since the turn of the year.
“Football is so strange. The last five games we play away in the first half of the season we won three of them”, he continued.
“After that, the second half and we haven’t won the first five away.
“We need to review what we are doing, we are not playing well.
"We have had a strong second half at home so far.”
West Ham will be without the services of Andy Carroll against Huddersfield on Saturday, after the striker picked up an ankle injury.
