David Moyes has reiterated that his West Ham United team are looking to finish the Premier League season strongly as they prepare to take on Everton's relegation rivals Leicester City on the final day.
Leicester go into the King Power Stadium clash against the Hammers on the back of holding Newcastle United to a 0-0 draw at St James' Park on Monday. That moved them up to 18th and within two points of 17th-placed Everton, who will secure their safety by winning at home to Bournemouth on Sunday, no matter how the Foxes get on.
Moyes did his former club a favour last weekend when West Ham came from behind to win 3-1 at home to 19th-placed Leeds United, who are the third team embroiled in the fight to stay up. And the former Blues boss is targeting another victory on Sunday, hinting he will be naming a strong side ahead of the Hammers' Europa Conference League final against Fiorentina on June 7.
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"I see it as a chance to get another league place higher up," said Moyes, whose 14th-placed team could finish as high as 12th. "We're all well aware of the value of that in the Premier League but I think if you gave me this position a few weeks ago, I would've snapped your hands off because being in a position where we don't go into the last day with any problems and, more importantly, we go into it knowing we've got a cup final in a week or so's time.
"We have to get another win, we have to see if we can finish a little bit higher up the league - if we did it'll be important for us. We're preparing ourselves for a final, we have to be getting everybody in the right condition for that."
West Ham booked their place in Prague showpiece by beating AZ Alkmaar. The Fiorentina clash will be the club's first European final since 1976.
And Moyes is more than aware that allowing too much rest could see the Hammers lose their edge. "We want everybody fresh but we want them all able and prepared," said the Hammers manager. "We don't want the gap in time between the games to be too long.
"All of those things are coming into our thinking. We want to keep playing as well as we have, we've improved greatly in the last month or so, we had a really good victory last weekend, we won at Alkmaar as well, so we want to try keep that run going."
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