David Moyes believes he is now seeing the real West Ham after another impressive display saw them clinch a 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
When the Hammers crashed 2-0 at home to Newcastle on the opening day it was difficult to see where their next point was coming from with a horror run of fixtures against Arsenal, Wolves, Leicester, Tottenham and then City.
Two wins, a dramatic draw at Spurs and Saturday's fine display later, West Ham have a creditable eight points to their name and a spring in their step ahead of next weekend's trip to Liverpool.
"After our Newcastle performance I was absolutely stunned, I hadn't seen that coming in pre-season. I'd seen what I'm seeing now," said Hammers boss Moyes.
"I'd like to put that down as a one-off. Now is more what we expect to play like – two wins and two draws against teams who are hard to take points against.
"We played better against Spurs than City but we were hard to beat, and hard to score against, which against City and what they are capable of is good for us.
"The big thing is we have a squad of players, others waiting to come in, we have brought players in so the competition is tough now. If you want to stay in the team then you need to keep performing.
We could watch @Michailantonio's goal over and over again! 😍 pic.twitter.com/nSY5WndVj0 — West Ham United (@WestHam) October 24, 2020
"We have got a really good group and team spirit and it is showing in our performances, and also we are improving as a team, our football is getting better. From that point of view I am really pleased with how things have been going.
"When everybody saw the fixtures we thought it would be tough, but because the players have played so well, their attitude and determination, they have all trained well, there are lots of things that have given me hope.
"I went into Saturday thinking we had a really good chance to get something – and that says a lot when you play Manchester City – but that has come from the other results.
"Our performances in the main have been pretty good and we have taken a decent points total from the teams we have played."
Michail Antonio's stunning bicycle kick gave West Ham the lead in the first half but substitute Phil Foden rescued a point for City just after half-time.
"It's not a good point, we wanted three, but we're not a team who will sulk a lot," Foden told City's website.
"We'll get over it, look at things we can improve on and go ahead."
