Tomas Soucek challenges West Ham teammates to tee up perfect Christmas ahead of testing run

Tomas Soucek has challenged his West Ham teammates to tee-up the perfect Christmas as they start a vital run of three games in seven days.

The Hammers host Wolves on Sunday, looking to return to winning ways in the Premier League following last weekend’s 5-0 hammering at Fulham.

They then face a midweek trip to Liverpool, where a place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals will be on the line, before David Moyes’s former club Manchester United come to east London next Saturday.

"I think the last few games we’ve had consistency with results, apart from Fulham, which was just a very bad performance from us,” Soucek said, after the Hammers beat Freiburg on Thursday night to clinch top spot in their Europa League group. “We are happy that we bounced back very quickly in four days.

“From now until Christmas we have another three games in, I think, seven days so it will be tough but with this win it makes it so much easier to recover for the Wolves game.

“[Winning those games] would be a nice gift. It’s all in a few days, every two-and-a-half days you have a game. It’s very difficult but we have a good recovery team and we do the maximum to concentrate on these three days. After that, we can enjoy Christmas.”

Victory over Freiburg ensured West Ham will avoid a knockout playoff tie in the New Year and instead advance directly to the last-16 in March.

It also made the Hammers just the sixth English club to top a European group in three successive seasons, an achievement Soucek believes should not be underestimated.

“Yeah, lots of people say that we are favourites in the group and maybe we are, but it’s difficult every time to play against every team,” he added. “You can see even with Premier League teams in the Champions League, it’s not that easy.

“Even some Premier League clubs in this competition can suffer. It’s not that easy but we did a good job. Now we look forward to the knockouts and it’s even harder there.”