Low morale: West Ham boss Bilic expecting Man City response

Arsenal were static when defending set pieces while they also lacked creativity in midfield and bite up front, while Dinamo’s attack of El Hilal Arabi Soudani and Junior Fernandes and Marko Pjaca threatened with their pace and mobility.

City will provide an even stiffer test than those two teams on Saturday, having won all five of their games so far without conceding a goal.

And with Bilic’s men travelling to Manchester City this Saturday (5.30pm) he is encouraged by the recent results and travels to the Etihad with expectation.

The Croatian coach said: “Manchester City will feel they need a response after the game against Juventus in the Champions League, but that won’t affect their confidence”.

“But we are confident, this is not a bonus game, I would be very disappointed if we don’t get anything from the game”.

“They already have a gap, which is hard to close after five games, so on one hand it would be a surprise”.

Bilic led Besiktas to victory over Liverpool in the Europa League last season, but his West Ham side failed to make it past the qualifying stage in August after losing to Romania’s Astra Giurgiu.

“They (English teams) are not naive but you have to know that the other teams are also good”.

Until Monday night, when they comfortably beat Newcastle, Bilic’s men had not won on their home turf after defeats to Leicester and Bournemouth.

“It was just a precaution”, he said.

A 2 – 0 win for Manchester City is the most likely outcome with William Hill and Bet365 offering odds of 13/2 and 7/1 respectively.

Away wins over Liverpool and Arsenal and their first home win earlier this week has West Ham looking good early on in the Premier League campaign.

“I am not comparing him to (Lionel) Messi or (Cristiano) Ronaldo or (David) Silva but for years managers try to block or stop those big players but they cannot do it”.