We know where we have to be come five o'clock

Last updated : 05 February 2010 By Tony Scholes
Both were busy in latter part of the transfer window with Zola bringing in three strikers in Benni McCarthy, Ilan and Mido, and he's been impressed with what he's seen of them in training.

"We know Benni is a goalscorer and that's why we brought him in and we're looking forward to seeing him produce goals for us," Zola said. "Mido has been a surprise. He is working hard and he wants to improve himself, so he has started with the perfect attitude which is very important.

"To be honest he's been brilliant so far and I look forward to seeing him train like this for a long time. Ilan has trained twice with us, but he looks OK. He is a good player.

But Zola has also been impressed with his defence of late who have conceded just one goal in the last three games whilst remaining unchanged.

Zola added: "What has influenced us was in fact that, at the beginning of the season, we could never play the same formation for more than two games. That was a big thing, trust me, because we were always changing players and formations and the team shape, and that didn't help to find a good balance.

"We want to score more goals but, at the same time, we want to keep it tight at the back. In the last few games we didn't score many goals, but we didn't concede many as well. I would like to just be a little bit more prolific in front of goal, but keep the same attention defensively that we've had in the last few games."

Looking at tomorrow's game he said: "They're no doing too well recently, but I don't trust it. I know it's going to be a tough game and if we want to produce a good result, we have to perform. The team is ready and we're looking forward to the match.

"I think it's massive. It's a game, first of all, against a team in more or less the same points as us, so it will be vital not to give them anything. Plus, on the psychological side, it will be massive not to give them anything.

"To get a good result against them with two home games to play would be massive. We won 5-3 in the home game and I would take 3-5 this time, but I wouldn't mind a 1-0 win to be honest."

Brian Laws has now been manager of Burnley for just over three weeks. "It started at Manchester United, however difficult that game was going to be. My tenure started them and there has been a lot of work done in that period of time," Laws said.

"We've done a lot of hard work and now we want to see that bear fruit. I want to get a win under our belts as quickly as we possibly can. That's what we will get judged on in the end, winning games, however you get them.

"Points in the Premier League are precious and that's the one thing we have to do, get those points on the board now."

Referring to last week's game against Chelsea, when we played so well, he added: "That's the kind of attitude and application we have to have against every team that we play, and not just leave it for the best ones.

"The pressure is more because nobody expected us to get anything against Chelsea, other than ourselves, where now I think the tables are turned and now I think people are expecting us to get a result.

"It won't be easy. I think West Ham will take that approach of 'don't get beat' and I think they will flood the midfield as much as they can. But they have got good players and might try and catch us on the counter-attack and we've got to be careful of that.

"But it's our home game; let's worry about ourselves and if we approach it in the right manner we'll have a good chance against them. We have to look to get something positive out of every game and points are very positive.

"Everybody knows we need to get points on the board as quickly as we can. This is a massive game for us because it's quite evident if we can get a win under our belts we are out of the bottom three."

He concluded: "We know where we have to be come five o'clock. We need to get at West Ham and win the game, although they won't make it easy for us."