West Ham boss David Moyes says qualifying for Europe for a second season in a row would be a “huge achievement”.
The Hammers have had an excellent campaign so far, juggling a demanding Premier League with a first foray into the Europa League and they are still competing on both fronts.
While they now look an outside bet to finish in the top four, they are firmly in the mix to finish in the top six and they could even earn Champions League qualification if they were able to win the Europa League.
However they were to qualify, Moyes knows exactly what a feat it would be ahead of this Sunday’s visit to Brentford.
“I believe if we could do it two years in a row it would be fantastic,” he said. “To qualify for Europe by winning the Europa League would be some doing, you have to go right through and win it but there is a huge prize at the end of it if you can win it.
“So what you have to do is your domestic stuff, you have to win your league games and stay in the hunt for those European positions.
“So if we could keep in there and hang in there it would be a huge achievement, to play in Europe this year and to have challenged to be in the top six, which we are doing, for a second year in a row.”
Moyes, whose side are three points below the top four, but having played more games, is not concerning himself with how many points his side may need to take from their remaining seven games.
“Not really, you start to look at what things might affect it, like who the opposition are playing,” he said.
“It is up and down, this year some teams have benefited from missing games with Covid.
“Some teams will have had an advantage from waiting, yes they are putting their games on at this part of the season but quite often at this time of the season all your players are fit. Maybe they are not.
“The league is a little bit skewwhiff, because of some teams have played more than others so it is quite difficult to work out exactly.
“But all we can do is concentrate on ourselves. We have got some good games and some really difficult games coming so we have to try and do what we can.”
