Collins loving Hammers back three

A back three is becoming all the rage in the Premier League and West Ham defender James Collins claims he is enjoying the formation du jour.

With Premier League champions Chelsea employing a back three to great effect since early in the campaign, other teams have started following suit – including Arsenal and West Ham.

Collins, Winston Reid and Jose Fonte have been the preferred defensive trio for the Hammers under Slaven Bilic and the formation helped them sink the title hopes of fierce rivals Tottenham with a 1-0 win last Friday.

Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

And Collins, who was already familiar with the system from his international career, believes it suits the Londoners down to the ground.

“I’ve played as part of a back three for a long time with Wales,” explained Collins. “We’re playing with that system and it’s working at the minute.

“It’s getting played more in the Premier League and we’ve got the players to do it.

“It’s been great playing alongside Reidy and Jose as a three. They’re tremendous centre-halves and any mistakes I make they see what’s going on and clear up for me. Hopefully I do the same for them. It’s going well.

“We’re full of confidence at the minute – we’re not really thinking about who we’re playing against, we just know that if we turn up and play like we did last week [against Spurs] we can beat anyone.”