Saturday 27 August 2016 13:47, UK
Slaven Bilic has backed his West Ham side to cause an upset against Manchester City for the second consecutive season.
The Hammers head to the Etihad in the Premier League on Sunday and Bilic will be hoping for a repeat of last season's corresponding fixture, which West Ham won 2-1 - thanks to goals from Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho.
The Hammers go into the game on the back of a disappointing Europa League play-off defeat to Astra Giurgiu on Thursday evening.
However, despite that result, Bilic is confident his side can cause an upset in Manchester this weekend.
"It wasn't very likely last year because they had started great and had 15 points from five games without conceding a goal," Bilic said at his pre-match press conference.
"But we played a really good game. We scored twice in the first half.
"In the second half they put us under pressure and were really dominating and creating a few chances, but they missed them and we were good in defending the box. Then we made that huge win.
"There's no reason why we shouldn't do it this season. We know it's a big challenge, not only regarding our injury situation, but we are hoping and our whole plan is to have a good game and to get something out of it.
"It's going to be hard, of course. They've shown already they are top-class players and they've gelled.
"They were the most impressive in their Champions League game against Steaua in Bucharest, but what gives us hope is that Sunderland made it hard for them and so did Stoke - the result was 4-1 but it was not that easy and the game was very even for a long period.
"Man City were Man City last year and we can do it again."
