David Moyes says he wants to see his West Ham United team continue to improve as they prepare for a second successive London derby this Monday.
The Hammers travel to Chelsea looking to keep pace with the Premier League's front-runners and give the Claret & Blue faithful an early Christmas present, having won four of their previous six fixtures and come from behind to earn a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace in midweek.
With more good news following on Friday in the shape of Michail Antonio's contract extension, Moyes and his players are heading into the Stamford Bridge clash in excellent spirits.
Michail's contract extension is great news...
It was really important to extend his contract because he had an option we had to take up before the end of January. Certainly since lockdown, he's become instrumental to a lot of our goals and how he's played.
I'm pleased that we got it and it's good that the Club had things in control. I'm thrilled that we've got Micky sorted - all we need to do now is get him fit, firing and ready to play the way he has done over recent times.
We're showing good characteristics in our play...
It's normally seen as the halfway point at Christmas, but we're only a third of the way through this year, which might be something the players feel the effects of later in the year.
I've really enjoyed the season so far, we've done very well, the players have had a great run of games and shown a lot of good characteristics to play well, with resilience and scoring goals too. There's lots of improvements from where we were before, but as I said it's only a third of the season gone so we have to try and keep it going.
This is a very busy period for us. It's a good time of the year for football, but heading into it it's always daunting because of the amount of games!
We've improved in all aspects over the past year...
We've worked hard. We wanted to try and improve. When I took over at this time of year 12 months ago we were in the bottom three going into the first game, so the improvements have been good. Our recruitment in the main has given us a chance, but more importantly the players have got themselves in really good condition.
Our fitness levels have improved, our attitude too, so all round we have improved. It's small steps, we are by far not the finished article. There's a long way to go but I can see lots of things that have improved and can be added to as we go along. That takes time.
Chelsea are taking steps back towards challenging...
Chelsea have been very good. It's a new team, they've pulled a new team together, there's a lot of new players and they've tried to get themselves right back to where they were, which is winning the Premier League and to cup finals.
I think Frank Lampard's done a good job, they've got some exciting young footballers who are going to have long and prosperous careers. They've got a good team, Chelsea.
There are several keys to improvement...
When you're looking to improve, as we have, there are loads of things which need to come together, but certainly the identification of what you need is the key starting point. What can be added, is there a certain characteristic you need to put in there?
I think we had a few we needed - we needed legs, more speed, to change the attitude regarding resilience and sticking at it. So there were many things, it can take time, but thankfully we've had a good start to the season. We want to keep it going, the additions we have made to the squad have helped and we'll need to look to do that in the future too. I think it's a continuing process of trying to build.
I've said many times it doesn't happen overnight, you can't expect to always be travelling in the right direction. It it was it would be easy. It's not an easy job but I'm really pleased with how all the players have done. I think they've been exceptional so far. Long may that continue.