Matthew Upson has declared West Ham are "massively better" than the Premier League table suggests. The Hammers have endured a miserable start to the campaign with four straight league defeats, their worst-ever start to a season.
Upson is prepared for the physical battle Stoke are sure to serve up and is backing his team-mates' character to get their season back on track.
"We're massively better than bottom of the table," he told the club's official website. "We've got opportunities to put things right and I think once we've got that solidarity and consistency we'll start to pick up results.
"I'm so looking forward to this game at the weekend. I want us to turn up as a group feeling positive and really go to win the game.
"Yes, it's a difficult place to go, they've got their tactics and they structure their team well around it, but if we can deal with that and hit them with some quality, there's no doubt we can win the game.
"It's going to be a physical game, but we've got to be up for that. We've got to put our heads in places where we don't want to put them and be prepared to get them kicked off.
"If we can do that and then play with the ball, we can beat Stoke. We do need to do that first and foremost - it'll be a good test of our character."
