West Brom boss Slaven Bilic demands ‘right mentality’

The Baggies – who were promoted just eight weeks ago – fell to a 3-0 defeat against Leicester and appeared to lose belief and confidence after Timothy Castagne nodded the Foxes ahead in the 56th minute.

Last season, promoted sides Villa and Sheffield United both managed to survive after coming up from the Championship – with Norwich the only side to go straight back down. The Blades particularly impressed – with Chris Wilder’s side going on to finish the campaign in ninth spot.

Bilic says there are numerous examples of teams who go up and do well in the Premier League. But he says his players must have faith in themselves if they are to have any chances of replicating the likes of Sheffield United.

“I bet when Sheffield United were talking before the start of last season, their first objective was to stay up,” Bilic said.

“And then they gained that momentum. To do that you have to humble, you have to be well-balanced. But that is what we want to do. Sheffield United is a great hope for every promoted team and for us.

“But you have to think positive. We can only think positive. You don’t think about Norwich. There are many positive examples in the league of newly promoted sides doing well. We are going to be like that, we are going to end up like them. For that we have to work hard, we have to have the right quality, right mentality. But most of all we have to believe.

“If you don’t believe then what’s the point? We believe. We believe.

“If we stretched the quality we had against Leicester for 55 minutes over 95 minutes we have enough quality. And we were playing Leicester – a good side.

“This is the level where we deserve to be, it’s the level where we want to be. We must not drop like we did after the first goal.”