West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic is keen to use their clash with West Brom as a barometer.

The Baggies raced into a four-goal lead at The Hawthorns back in September, leaving Bilic feeling embarrassed at the state of his defence, and West Ham ultimately lost 4-2 despite having enjoyed 70 per cent of possession.

Bilic said: "It was a very, very strange game to be fair. I remember when they scored the fourth goal, it was like "oh my God". An unbelievable feeling.

"But in the second half, and it sounds stupid to say and I didn't say it at the time because you can't say it when you are losing, but we played good. We made individual mistakes. It just happens.

"Now we are a different team. We have players fit now, that is the key. That September was very bad for us, the pre-season injuries we had, the players at the Euros didn't do a proper pre-season and got injured.

"A week before West Brom was Watford, winning 2-0 and playing so good, and lose 4-2. That affects you like a chain reaction, a number of factors and it doesn't happen overnight to come back to the level required to have a good team.

"It took us a couple of months. We have to at least maintain it, try to avoid injuries, work hard and try to improve."