Slaven Bilic believes the gap is narrowing on the league's top four
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic believes the performances of the likes of Leicester City and his own team this season are indicative of a shift in power in the Barclays Premier League.
With Leicester leading the way, and the Hammers only a point outside the top four, the traditional big boys are in danger of having their usual dominance usurped.
Bilic explained that the increasing financial power of the chasing pack goes some way to explaining that.
He said: “Let’s say Man City and Chelsea want to buy a striker. They can buy, I don’t know, Benzema, but they have Aguero. There’s no big space for them to improve.
“For the clubs like us, Crystal Palace, West Brom. Maybe two years they would have to sell to get Rondon, but now they can get Rondon.
“Next year, if you are clever with more investment you can keep those players. Crystal Palace can keep Cabaye and buy another one. So those teams have bigger room to improve.
“That’s why I think this is a hopefully a permanent shift.”
Focusing on Saturday’s comeback against Everton, Bilic said his team always believed they could get back in it.
He added: “When it was 1-0 and even 2-0, the fact we were the better team over the 90 minutes allowed us to tell the players ‘don’t be slow, but don’t lose your composure’.
“On breaks with Lukaku and Barkley of course they can cause us problems, but if your remember Payet had a shot in the first minutes that he normally scores and that was the pattern that with a few passes we could make dangerous situations.
“We were a little bit too sexy in the first half, but not clinical. We felt that we had that, and the players knew that they were better and they kept at it.”
With Leicester leading the way, and the Hammers only a point outside the top four, the traditional big boys are in danger of having their usual dominance usurped.
Bilic explained that the increasing financial power of the chasing pack goes some way to explaining that.
He said: “Let’s say Man City and Chelsea want to buy a striker. They can buy, I don’t know, Benzema, but they have Aguero. There’s no big space for them to improve.
“For the clubs like us, Crystal Palace, West Brom. Maybe two years they would have to sell to get Rondon, but now they can get Rondon.
“Next year, if you are clever with more investment you can keep those players. Crystal Palace can keep Cabaye and buy another one. So those teams have bigger room to improve.
“That’s why I think this is a hopefully a permanent shift.”
Focusing on Saturday’s comeback against Everton, Bilic said his team always believed they could get back in it.
He added: “When it was 1-0 and even 2-0, the fact we were the better team over the 90 minutes allowed us to tell the players ‘don’t be slow, but don’t lose your composure’.
“On breaks with Lukaku and Barkley of course they can cause us problems, but if your remember Payet had a shot in the first minutes that he normally scores and that was the pattern that with a few passes we could make dangerous situations.
“We were a little bit too sexy in the first half, but not clinical. We felt that we had that, and the players knew that they were better and they kept at it.”