Sunday 21 September 2014 13:59, UK
West Brom manager Alan Irvine admits he is feeling the pressure after just four Premier League games this season.
Irvine’s side sit 19th in the table after taking just two points so far following consecutive defeats by Swansea and Everton.
The Baggies were booed off the Hawthorns pitch by their own supporters following their 2-0 defeat against Everton last week and Irvine knows his team must improve quickly.
"That's the nature of the job, anyone who's down the bottom end of the table is going to be in that position where they're under pressure," he said.
"But it's four games in and it can change very quickly. I see Paul Lambert's been given a new contract and if I remember rightly, he was under a great deal of pressure last season and gone through some difficult times."
Despite the less than encouraging early returns so far in his reign, Irvine remains confident he is the right man for the job and he urged West Brom fans to remain patient.
"All I can say is that I believe we will get this right,” he said. “The players are great to work with. It's a pleasure to work with them on a daily basis.
"They are very open to the work we're doing on the training ground and I feel really confident with the group of players we've got here and the work we'll do that we'll get good results."
West Brom travel to Tottenham on Sunday in search of their first league win this season.
Mauricio Pochettino's side have aspirations of returning to the Champions League and Irvine believes the Argentine is capable of leading Spurs to a top-four finish.
"He inherited a good squad at Southampton and built on what Nigel Adkins was doing," he said.
"He got the Tottenham job and again inherited a very good squad with lots of good players and he is continuing to work well with them.
"I would expect them to be a team competing at the top level.
"There are probably seven teams competing for places in the top four and I would put Tottenham in among them."
Albion have not won at White Hart Lane since 1984 but Irvine insisted that, while his team will be wary of the threat Spurs possess, they are not going there to just sit back and defend.
"You certainly have to be mindful of the way they can hurt you," he added. "They've got a lot of attacking players and real threats from individuals.
"We have to be mindful of that but we've got to make sure we don't give them too much encouragement at the start.
"We need to be right defensively but we can't be passive. We can't just sit back and let Tottenham come at us for 90 minutes because, with the quality they have got, they will open you up.
"So we have to be organised and structured but also positive and aggressive."
