West Ham United defender José Fonte has insisted that the Hammers need to "look up" in terms of their end of season aspirations.
Slaven Bilić's side are looking to break the 40-point mark in the Premier League standings on Saturday with the visit of Everton.
Hammers in a good position to finish well
It has been a tough start to life at the London Stadium for Fonte since his January move from the Southampton, with the defender unfortunate to see the club endure a massive dip in form almost ever since.
The form of Bilić's men has taken a complete nosedive since Fonte's return to St Mary's back at the beginning of February, with a run of seven matches without a victory leaving them very close to the relegation zone.
However things have improved with the crucial win over Swansea City and last Saturday's 2-2 draw with Sunderland, despite the draw at the Stadium of Light not being the desired result. Those results have left the Londoners nine points above the drop zone and just three points outside the top ten.
The Hammers will be tested on Saturday with the arrival of Ronald Koeman's in-form Everton side, but Fonte insists that it is important that the club continue to look up the table as they enter the final leg of the season.
"Finishing in the top half of the table is obviously one of the targets we have," Fonte told whufc.com. "We can't look down, we have to look up."
The 33-year-old added:"We have to be ambitious and we have to be strong. To fight for the best for the Club and to fight for the fans. We have to focus on our next game against Everton. If we win it we will be in a good position to finish the season on a high."
Reid to make a much-needed return
The Hammers have been dealt a bad hand in terms of injury luck in the past weeks, losing both Pedro Obiang and top scorer Michail Antonio for the rest of the season for the individual injuries that they picked up in the 3-2 defeat to Leicester City before the international break.
Another player that was lost during that loss to the champions was defender Winston Reid who has been out with a adductor injury ever since.
But Bilić confirmed that Reid has been back in training with the first-team squad recently and spoke of how crucial his return will be for the side's run-in.
“We know from before that he doesn’t need many games to get his form good," he said. "So it’s big for us of course because he’s one of our major players, one of the senators, as I call them."
"It’s a big boost for us for the remainder of the season," the coach said. “He is one of our best players of the season, so we are expecting him to make our defence more solid.”