West Ham manager David Moyes hopeful of picking up points despite tough run of games

David Moyes has admitted that his West Ham United team face a tough task to pull away from the relegation over the coming weeks as they enter a tough run of fixtures.

Moyes had hoped that the Hammers could secure a crucial victory against Everton ahead of a run which sees them play Leicester City, Liverpool twice and Manchester City in less than three weeks.

West Ham could not beat a below-par Everton after Issa Diop’s goal was quickly levelled by Dominic Calvert-Lewin in what was largely an unremarkable match.

Asked about his team’s forthcoming run, West Ham manager Moyes said: “I knew when I took the job that January and into the start of February looked like a tough period, and if we didn’t get ourselves away from the bottom, then picking up points this month could be hard.

“But what’s given me a bit of hope is that the results are a bit unsure and you wouldn’t know who is going to win at the moment. So I will go into them hoping that maybe we’re not the ones expected to win, but that we pick up the points.”

West Ham’s fixture list and the lack of options available to Moyes on the substitutes’ bench against Everton underlines the need for new signings this month. But the Scot defended co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold, who were the targets of a pre-match protest and have been accused by some supporters of not spending enough money.

“The thing about showing ambition, I think the owners have spent about £160million in the last two transfer windows,” said Moyes. “So you would have to say, maybe they [the fans] want it to be more or better, but I don’t think you could say it wasn’t for them trying to spend the money.

“I think they have and they’ve said to me if the right player comes along this month we’ll do it. Ideally, we’d all rather do it in the summer, when there might be a bit more time, but we are pretty short at the moment and we’ve got a few injuries.

“I think three or four more signings would be unrealistic. I think if we got one more, we would be thinking that’s the way it looks. The biggest thing is trying to get what you really want when clubs don’t really want to do business now.”