Mark Noble has challenged his West Ham United side to maintain their fine start to the season now the games start to come thick and fast over the crucial winter months.
Tuesday's trip to West Bromwich Albion is the first of six fixtures in December - a run which will take the Hammers up to the half-way point of the campaign.
Currently sitting in fifth place, Noble knows that run could go a long way to deciding whether Sam Allardyce's men will continue to compete at the top end of the table.
He explained: "If we can keep going the way we are going, who knows where we'll end up. But the league is so tight. Everyone keeps beating everyone and that shows you the quality of the Premier League. We have to just keep winning games and take it game by game."
"The manager has shown us some stats and our Christmas periods since he has been here have not been the best. Whether that is because of injuries and we haven't had a big enough squad I don't know.
"The Christmas period is so demanding and you need a big squad for that because people do pick up injuries. We have four games in eight days and you need the squad to be able to deal with that. I think we have that this year.
"It is natural for expectations to go up. We are in a good position, but we played a top five side on Saturday and we had to dig in harder to get a result. That's what happens. Newcastle were good but we came away with a clean sheet and three points and the fans went home happy.
"Saturday was massive so that we can go to West Brom and enjoy it. It takes the pressure off us a little bit."