The Hammers, who have been on a warm-weather training trip to Dubai, have won their last three Premier League games and kept four clean sheets in a row to help them move up into mid-table.

Although results have gone the Londoners' way in January, Allardyce has again expressed his belief that there should be a winter break.

"I've said for many, many years that our country needs to close down at some stage in mid-season for a few days. I think the data and the stats prove that," he told Sky Sports.

"The rest of Europe do it but we, because of our fixture list, find it impossible to do which is obviously putting players at greater risk.

"If you look at the injury count over Christmas and New Year, it's shot up immensely because of the extra games in that particular period.

"With all the data and the period of time, the Premier League feel they can't fit it in, so as a manager I have to find the time to fit it in and find the opportunity to take my players away.

"I've been doing it for 12-13 years now and everything when you come back indicates that it's the right thing to do.

"You get an increase in fitness, you get an increase in output and hopefully that helps you get an increase in results so let's hope it works this time."

Asked if anything has changed in the Hammers' camp following their upturn in fortunes, Allardyce replied: "Nothing special really. Just getting the players fit again.

"There were that many players devastated by injury it became very difficult for us to compete at this level of football.

"We always felt that once we got those players fit again that they would increase that level of performance and of course new players coming in the (January) window has helped us and that's why results have got better."