West Ham United manager David Moyes says his players are focused on ending the season as strongly as possible, starting with a good performance against Manchester United.

The Irons secured their Premier League status last weekend after achieving a win over Leicester City, with Moyes praising his side’s attitude.

Ahead of the Premier League clash with the Red Devils on Thursday, the Hammers boss met with representatives of the media. Here’s what he had to say…

We always wanted to ensure our own safety

We were on the bus back from Leicester when we heard (that we were safe). We didn’t have coverage so it was coming through the radio, and a big cheer went up from the players when they heard because they knew that got us over the line.

West Ham celebrate Mark Noble's goal in the 2-0 win away at Leicester City

But the biggest cheer for me was how the supporters reacted to the players and their performance at Leicester. The supporters understood how well we’d played and how well we had done.

I was more thrilled with how well we had played at Leicester; How we had passed it and how we had scored good goals. Maybe on another day we would have scored more goals.

The Southampton and Everton result helped, obviously, but the biggest result was ours. We always wanted it to be done by us.

I probably expected it to go to the last week of the season, to be honest. I always thought, these two home games, we would have to win one of them to make sure we stayed up. But we’ve done it before that and I can enjoy the two games in the hope that we can win the points against them and climb up the league.

The players and my staff deserve a huge well done

I have to say well done to the players. When I came in here we had nine points and it was difficult, but I’ve got to say the players have gone and done the job and got the points. I think we’ve scored quite a few goals and I’ve got to say all credit to the players.

A lot of people questioned me coming in but I’ve got to say the job was to come in and keep the side up, and we’ve done that. But I’ve got to say that I’ve got a really good staff. I’ve got a top end staff here and they’ve been really helpful.

The players know that if we can win a couple more games, then we can get ourselves higher up the league. Then we might even be thinking ‘well, what was all the worry about’?

We cannot relax just because we are safe

I wouldn’t be using the word ‘relaxation’ – far from it! I will be saying that we have two good games and we know the pressure of any relegation is not there anymore, and we will try to play the best we can.

We will do everything we can to beat Manchester United

I can only ever say good things about Manchester United because I respect the club so much and what they stand for, and just how good a football club it is. Anybody who is a manager of that football club has a real privilege.

I think we would rather be not playing them after a defeat, but the truth is we have to play Manchester United and we will do everything we can to win. We will try to play well in this game.

We have felt the benefits of our Miami training camp

I think our performances since we’ve come back from our trip have been really good. Maybe if you took out the Manchester City game, I think the players have played really well picked up points in the last seven weeks, and shown a real togetherness in the group.