Aaron Cresswell insists West Ham‘s players will not be thinking about their holidays on the final day of the Premier League season despite securing their top-flight status last weekend.
The Hammers won 2-0 at Leicester to guarantee their safety before holding Jose Mourinho‘s Manchester United to a goalless draw at the London Stadium on Thursday night.
They now host Everton, managed by former West Ham boss Sam Allardyce, knowing they could even finish in the top half if they win and other results go their way.
While that scenario seems unlikely, Cresswell is still targeting a strong end to what has been a difficult season for the club both on and off the pitch.
“It’s the last game of the season but from our point of our view we’re not looking at it as the last step before a holiday,” the England defender told the club’s official website.
“We want to push up the table and try to finish the season on a high, because it hasn’t really been good enough, so that’s what we want to do.
“We haven’t been good at times this year but I think if we get three more points on Sunday then that could potentially push us up to 10th. We will stay positive and see what happens.
It’s been a trying season for Aaron Creswell (l) and Co at West Ham.
“No-one wants to finish the season with the attitude that because we are now safe we’re just going to give up. That’s certainly not the mentality these lads have got, and we’ll be fully focused come Sunday.”
Cresswell is also looking to take the positives from the stalemate against United, where the highlight of the game was a late fracas between Hammers skipper Mark Noble and Paul Pogba.
“Taking the positives out the match with Manchester United, it was a clean-sheet and another point on the board,” he added.
“They’ve got some fantastic players throughout the whole squad and we kept them quietly mainly throughout the match, and now we want to finish on a high against Everton and hopefully get three points.”
With the future of manager David Moyes uncertain, West Ham will head into the summer with several questions over who will remain at the London Stadium by the start of next season.
There have been times this campaign where supporters have turned on the board and called for them to sell up, while there are still teething problems following the move from Upton Park almost two years ago.
