Carlton Cole has issued a rallying cry ahead of tonight's trip to big-spending Manchester City claiming "we don't fear anybody".
Mark Hughes' men may have splashed the cash this summer and had a tremendous start to the season but Cole said West Ham United were more than up for the challenge. Despite a run of four league games without a win, the England striker said things will turn in the Hammers' favour sooner rather than later.
"We have got good character at our club," said the winner of the BBC's goal of the month award for August after his stunning strike against Tottenham Hotspur. "We went through a bad patch last season but we came through it with flying colours and were stronger for it.
"The boys that I work with every day, I know what they are all about and they are strong mentally and they have got good heart as well. We know what we need to do. We were unlucky against Liverpool and on Tuesday [in the Carling Cup] we were bitter about the exit because we were winning 1-0 with five minutes to go.
"We know what was wrong. We were naïve and we thought we had won already. That's what happens and we got punished."
Cole said such lessons would be learned by a youthful squad, while he said the signs were that the reinforcements introduced in recent months were beginning to settle down. "If you look at our squad, the average age is 23-24. We are a young side and we are learning every game and we have got some good recruits as well with the summer signings. Everyone is trying to gel and get together.
"We don't fear anybody," he added. "We just want to play football that is all we want to do. We are actually happy to be playing the big teams and Man City are obviously a massive side now - a force in football. We want to prove we can play well against these big sides and that's what keeps us going."