Jaaskelainen awaits crucial West Brom clash

Jussi Jaaskelainen feels West Ham’s next Premier League game against West Brom will be ‘massive’ as they bid to avoid relegation.

The Hammers are 14th with 33 points, just six clear of the drop zone with nine games left to play.

Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Chelsea saw Jaaskelainen’s side drop two places and the Finn admits that the Blues could have won more comfortably.

“Players like Mata and Hazard are top class but the way we kept the ball in the first half wasn’t good enough,” he told reporters.

“We were a little bit lucky not to concede more.

“We just have to keep going. We have a weekend off now and then we have to go again in a massive game against West Brom in a fortnight.”

The defeat to Chelsea was only West Ham’s second game in March, compared to Chelsea’s fifth, and Jaaskelainen admits that their lack of playing time has hindered their match-winning momentum.

“Sometimes you don’t want to have a break and after the win over Stoke we thought it would be great to have a game the next week,” he continued.

“Now we have another two weeks before our next match but that comes at a good time because we’ll get three or four players back in and we’ll be stronger. Hopefully we can benefit from that.”