Hammers boss Julen Lopetegui hails Arsenal as ‘the best team in the Premier League’ ahead of derby clash and admits he must improve dugout behaviour after being hit with touchline ban

Julen Lopetegui admits he must improve his behaviour towards officials after the West Ham boss was hit with a touchline ban and will miss this weekend’s huge clash with Arsenal.

The Spaniard picked up his third yellow card of the season when he over-reacted to a decision during the Hammers’ shock victory at Newcastle on Monday night, screaming in the face of the fourth official.

‘Maybe sometimes I have to improve my way to say how I feel,’ said Lopetegui. ‘I am passionate and sometimes you try to say something but how you act, you make actions with your hands, and you get yellow cards but always I try to have respect for referees, I don’t feel they treat me badly.

‘The more important thing is always the players [on Saturday], they are on the pitch or on the bench ready to help the team and be able to compete against, for sure, the best team in the Premier League and one of the best teams in the world.’

The result at Newcastle relieved huge pressure on Lopetegui who had been at the heart of speculation during the international break that he had just two games to save his job after a disappointing start to his tenure since replacing David Moyes in the summer.

West Ham’s win, though, put them just four points outside the European places in such a tightly-packed Premier League table.

West Ham’s win over Newcastle relieved huge pressure on Lopetegui after a difficult start to his reign

‘We don’t think about where we are now,’ added Lopetegui. ‘We want to think about where we’ll be in the next four months. The end of the season is the moment when we can talk what we did well or not.

‘A lot of things can happen this season. We have to be ready to compete, be better and improve.’

If West Ham are to pick up their first back-to-back league wins of the season, Lopetegui will have to get the better of fellow Spaniard Mikel Arteta who last week welcomed back Martin Odegaard from injury and showed just how influential he can be in Arsenal’s win over Nottingham Forest.

‘Mikel was a big, big player and after he’s doing a fantastic career as a coach,’ added Lopetegui. ‘He is putting his ideas into work. You can see very well the kind of coach he is. That’s why we have to be ready.

‘And If I talk about Odegaard, I have to talk about Buyako Saka, Declan Rice, each one – they have top players. Havertz, too. All of them are top players. They have two teams of top players.

The Spaniard picked up his third yellow card of the season when he over-reacted to a decision during the Hammers’ shock victory at Newcastle on Monday night

West Ham will attempt to keep their winning form going when they host Arsenal on Saturday

‘That’s why I prefer not to talk about them and to talk about us and talk about the things that are under our control.’

Edson Alvarez returns from suspension following his red card at Nottingham Forest, while Mohammed Kudus will serve the final match of his five-game suspension against the Gunners.