Clarke welcomes higher hopes

West Brom manager Steve Clarke insists he is happy with raised expectations following his side’s 3-0 opening-day win over Liverpool.

Goals from Zoltan Gera, Peter Odemwingie and loan-signing Romelu Lukaku gave West Brom an emphatic start to their Premier League campaign.

They turn their attention to another stern test against Tottenham this weekend, a challenge that Clarke is looking forward to.

“We like to set ourselves big challenges,” Clarke told reporters. “I’ve always said it’s a crime not to push yourself to do as well as you can in any walk of life and that’s what we try to do.

“We’ll try to build on the performance and result last week and (White Hart Lane is) a difficult place to go but we’ll relish the challenge. The players relish it as well, which is really good.

“It was good for the first couple of days after beating Liverpool and then you have to move on.

“The games come thick and fast and we’ve got another difficult one this weekend. But we’ve prepared well, we’ve worked hard again this week and hopefully we’re in the same frame of mind going into this game.

“I said last weekend there will be many games where we don’t feel quite so good after it and that is a different challenge. It’s another challenge for me, I’ve got to face that, but I think I’m well prepared for those days as well.”

Following the loan signing of Lukaku, Clarke now has five strikers on at his disposal, and Clarke says that all of his forwards can expect game time this year.

He added: “I think over the course of the season every player in the squad has a part to play. It can be that in the early weeks some of the players get frustrated because they’re not involved but they have to look at the bigger picture.

“The bigger picture is not the first three or six weeks of the season, it’s the season in its entirety.

“The strikers are all different and bring in different characteristics. That’s why I want to keep them all. I think the more strikers you’ve got, the more chance you have of scoring goals.

“If they are competing with each other for a place in the team then it means they are working hard every day in training every week to be in that team. If they are fighting for that then I think success will follow.”