Manuel Pellegrini admits that he is surprised by Everton's lowly Premier League position - but insisted that his team should take nothing for granted this weekend.
West Ham secured a 3-1 win at Goodison Park at the beginning of last season and go into Saturday's encounter in a favourable position, having enjoyed a far better start to the 2019/20 campaign than Marco Silva's Toffees.But Pellegrini warned his players not to be led into a false sense of security as a result of Everton's presence in the Premier League's bottom three.
When asked if he was surprised by their poor start to the season at Thursday's press conference, the manager replied: "Maybe, yes. They have very good players and a team that is very strong every year.
"I suppose I wouldn't have expected them to not be in that position in the table. It is difficult to analyse their situation. Last season we beat them there when we were in a position that they are now.
"Games are always different though and I am sure we will find an Everton with high pace and looking to get better results than their last games."
Pellegrini also reiterated that in order to push up the table, his own team need to stop conceding so many goals - a mantra that he had repeated since the opening day of the season when the Hammers were beaten 5-0 at home by Manchester City.
"I am very pleased with our style of football," he said. "We scored a beautiful goal against Palace. We have more shots on target so I think that we are selling the fans a good product.
"The players are happy, I am happy. We have to be ambitious, have a winning mentality and trust in what we are doing. But we need to stop conceding so many goals as we have conceded two in each of the last two games."
And with regards to West Ham's inability to beat Palace in the club's last outing - a result that would've taken West Ham into the top three - he added: "We are where we deserve to be.
"If we had beaten Crystal Palace it would have been an excellent start. If you asked me before, maybe this is the position we deserve."
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