Former Hammers and Man City striker Clive Allen has been impressed with Slaven Bilic's side so far this season
Having seen West Ham United storm to impressive back-to-back victories over Liverpool and Newcastle United, Clive Allen is now urging the high-flying Hammers to stick with the Slaven-style as they bid for a hat-trick of wins at table-topping Manchester City on Saturday evening.
"To be honest, I tipped City to win the Premier League at the start of the season and they've already stolen a march on Chelsea but after their performances at both Arsenal and Liverpool, there shouldn't be any problems for West Ham at the Etihad Stadium, should there?" smiles the former Hammer, who netted 21 goals during his 50 league and cup outings in the claret and blue.
"Seriously, after the confidence of those two big away victories at the Emirates and Anfield, the Hammers now need to be just as positive, when they go back out on the road for this one, too.
"The appointment of Slaven Bilic by the board was a very good move because he's an intelligent man, who gets his sides playing their football in the right way.
"And having played for West Ham, he understands exactly what the supporters want from their team, too," continues Clive, who also made 68 appearances for Saturday's opponents, scoring 21 goals during a two-year spell at their old Maine Road headquarters.
Manuel Pellegrini's odds-on title favourites may have opened their campaign with five wins out of five - an impressive 100% record that has come off the back of a £150 million summer spending spree that saw Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Nicolas Otamendi and Fabian Delph arrive at City - but the five-times capped England striker insists that the Hammers should be equally pleased with their recent transfer dealings, too.
"It's the nature of the beast that the bigger clubs can go out and spend such vast amounts of money and that's just the way it is," says Clive. "But every team wants to improve its squad wherever and whenever it can and, once again, West Ham made some great additions over the summer.
"We're already seeing the impact that Dimitri Payet is making on the team," insists BT Sport and Talksport pundit Allen, who also had a cross-Channel spell with Bordeaux during a goal-laden 487 game, ten-club career that saw him net on an impressive 221 occasions. "I saw a lot of Dimitri last season, when he was playing in Ligue 1 for Marseille and having put in some very impressive, creative performances over there, he's now starting to show the Premier League exactly what he can do here, too.
"One or two of Slaven's other signings could also really flourish," he concludes. "For me, everything is set up for a solid last season at the Boleyn Ground, ahead of that exciting move to the Olympic Stadium."
Read Steve Blowers full retro-interview with Clive Allen in the latest edition of EX-Magazine.
"To be honest, I tipped City to win the Premier League at the start of the season and they've already stolen a march on Chelsea but after their performances at both Arsenal and Liverpool, there shouldn't be any problems for West Ham at the Etihad Stadium, should there?" smiles the former Hammer, who netted 21 goals during his 50 league and cup outings in the claret and blue.
"Seriously, after the confidence of those two big away victories at the Emirates and Anfield, the Hammers now need to be just as positive, when they go back out on the road for this one, too.
"The appointment of Slaven Bilic by the board was a very good move because he's an intelligent man, who gets his sides playing their football in the right way.
"And having played for West Ham, he understands exactly what the supporters want from their team, too," continues Clive, who also made 68 appearances for Saturday's opponents, scoring 21 goals during a two-year spell at their old Maine Road headquarters.
Manuel Pellegrini's odds-on title favourites may have opened their campaign with five wins out of five - an impressive 100% record that has come off the back of a £150 million summer spending spree that saw Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Nicolas Otamendi and Fabian Delph arrive at City - but the five-times capped England striker insists that the Hammers should be equally pleased with their recent transfer dealings, too.
"It's the nature of the beast that the bigger clubs can go out and spend such vast amounts of money and that's just the way it is," says Clive. "But every team wants to improve its squad wherever and whenever it can and, once again, West Ham made some great additions over the summer.
"We're already seeing the impact that Dimitri Payet is making on the team," insists BT Sport and Talksport pundit Allen, who also had a cross-Channel spell with Bordeaux during a goal-laden 487 game, ten-club career that saw him net on an impressive 221 occasions. "I saw a lot of Dimitri last season, when he was playing in Ligue 1 for Marseille and having put in some very impressive, creative performances over there, he's now starting to show the Premier League exactly what he can do here, too.
"One or two of Slaven's other signings could also really flourish," he concludes. "For me, everything is set up for a solid last season at the Boleyn Ground, ahead of that exciting move to the Olympic Stadium."
Read Steve Blowers full retro-interview with Clive Allen in the latest edition of EX-Magazine.