PUBLISHED: 09:00 24 July 2020

Manchester United's Marcus Rashford (left) and West Ham United's Ben Johnson in action during the Premier League match at Old Trafford

PA Wire/PA Images

Young defender Ben Johnson says West Ham need to lay down a marker for next season as they complete the delayed 2019-20 Premier League campaign against Aston Villa on Sunday.

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The Hammers ensured their safety with a 1-1 draw against Manchester United in midweek, as full-back Johnson impressed at Old Trafford.

And David Moyes men will look to end on a high at London Stadium against a Villa side still fighting for their own survival.

Johnson told whufc.com: Its about looking at next season. Weve got to enjoy the draw. We probably couldve won with the chances we had.

I think just play with freedom on Sunday and continue it to next season and build on that, because I think well only have three weeks off and then well be back in pre-season.

So its not really a long break. We can build momentum from Sunday. You see Sheffield Unitedhaving a wonderful season, so why cant we do that?

With our keeper Lukasz Fabianski and the back four, the foundation we have allows to build. And the front three have shown we can goals from the restart, so who knows?

The 20-year-old Johnson had looked assured in the crucial 3-1 win over fellow strugglers Watford last Friday and kept Marcus Rashford quiet for long spells on Wednesday.

And the academy graduate said it was a relief to have stayed up after the three-month break due to the coronavirus pandemic, adding: Weve come back and learned from our manager. Hes give us results and were just delighted to mathematically be safe.

Having so long a break, there was uncertainty in the squad, but I think weve dug deep, weve played football like we can we can go to another level as well and just getting results is what we want and what we can do.

Weve had a difficult seasno, not the season we expected, but in the last couple of games weve shown what we can do and that we can go up a notch, so its just delightful to see us playing with freedom and together as a team.

Attacking-wise were dangerous and defensively were strong, so hopefully well just bring that into next season.

Sundays game against Aston Villa kicks off at 4pm and is being shown live on BT Sport from 3pm.

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West Ham have to play with freedom in finale Johnson - Romford Recorder