Pardew Remains Upbeat

Speaking after yesterday's game Pardew claimed that West Ham are returning to last year's good form.

"We've just pushed the champions to about our maximum. That was bordering on our optimum performance and, although we didn't get a result, I'm happy with my group of players. I can see that we're getting back to our levels of last year.

Our fans were brilliant, too. I thought that our performance matched their support and we all now need to take that into next week's game against Sheffield United because that's going to be a massive match for us."

Pardew also found time to praise Tevez's performance against The Blues,

"Today, Carlos was up to full speed and he showed just why he has such a high reputation. Hopefully we'll now see that again against Sheffield United and during the weeks after that, too."