The Hammers start the weekend in 2nd position in the Championship and for many people are favourites for promotion, but Saints have a good record against teams in the top echelons of the division and can go there with confidence.

West Ham will be looking to put Southampton to the sword and are a strong team with Jared Bowen having stayed from last season leading the way in a strong Hammers squad.

They have lost just once this season in the League, that being a 2-1 home defeat to Charlton in the second game of the season over two months ago.

Since then they have looked good and will be seeking to make this their 10 game in a row unbeaten in the Championship, however they don't always fire on all cylinders as QPR showed when they went to the London Stadium in the Hammers last home outing and were good value for their 1-1 draw.

But it should be noted that terms of results and not points deductions , our record is only worse by our defeat at Wrexham in injury time, if that had stayed a draw then we would have exactly the same record 6 wins, 4 draws and just 1 defeat.

So we can go there with confidence, however we have a mini injury crisis, the first worry is Flynn Downes who came off in last week's win at Norwich and then subsequently missed the draw with Bolton.

All indications are that Downes has not trained this week and will miss the game.

However that can be dealt with, Caspar Jander a more than adequate replacement now he is back from his own injury issues and we also have Cameron Bragg as cover.

But the second injury doubt is more serious, Cyle Larin has a hamstring issue and limped off against Bolton, last season it would not have been a problem, in would come Ross Stewart and all would be fine, but this season we do not have that luxury.

Tonda Eckert does have Divin Mabuma to come in, but it seems that he has no confidence in the loan strikers ability, the Manchester City loanee's game time has dropped off steadily in the last 4 games and in that period he has just 2 short sub appearances in the final minutes to his name.

In fact it seems that Eckert lost faith with him after giving him half an hour against Lincoln, in the 7 games since that disappointing draw, Mubama has come on as sub 5 times, but all have been short cameo's at the end of the game to run down the clock, a grand total of 29 minutes.

So if Larin doesn't make the starting line up for this game, Tonda has a bit of thinking to do and I would be surprised if Mubama starts the game.

So what are the other options, one could be to play Finn Azaz up front as the manager did when Larin went off against Pompey, but that is a different situation, we needed someone to hold up the ball then, it was stop gap.

Truthfully we need Azaz in the midfield where he is the man who makes everything tick.

Most likely could be playing Lewis Dobbin as an out and out centre forward, he did that at Preston, although usually he would be in a front two and not the lone striker.

But he offers not only pace but an eye for goal and creating openings for others.

It will mean a slight change of approach from Saints, but we have the players to do it.

Recent games have seen a bit of a mix and match, at time we have had Finn Azaz seemingly on the left rather than the centre and I don't think it has quite worked.

However that has been necessary for Tonda to rest a few players and hopefully he will get back to the basics that have served us so well in this calendar year.

Obviously that means Daniel Peretz in goal and I think since his return from the International break, the keeper has found his form again and has been a big factor in our 3 clean sheets.

In defence it has to be Bree, Staphens & Schlotterbeck, but on the left I would not be surprised to see Welington start the game, if only because he is more defensive minded than Ryan Manning and also offer a little more aerial power.

That being the case we also have to get back to our strongest midfield triangle, assuming that ex West Ham player Downes is out, that means Jander and James Ward Prowse as the two holding players with Finn Azaz sat just in front.

They should be flanked by Leo Scienza on the left & Matsuki on the right.

Then assuming Larin is not fit to play and I would not be surprised if he is not fit, hamstring injuries are not quick healers, then I would play Lewis Dobbin up front and look to play him in down the channels, use his pace to get one on one on their defenders.

If this is the line up, then firstly it gets back to the formation that we played so well last season under Tonda and also this season, this has been the core of our success under Tonda, although I understand why he has mixed and matched in the past few games due to red cards, injuries and resting players.

Having done that we can take on the Hammers with confidence and play to our strengths with every player knowing the position they are in and the job they need to do.

This is our first tough challenge of the season, Swansea have started well but have yet to take on anyone of real note except for ourselves and West Ham and they lost both of those.

For me the top four will be contested by West Ham, Middlesbrough, Wolves & ourselves, so this is a big test.

But whatever the result there is a long way to go in this season, this is only the point where we cross the quarter way mark, now the wheat is going to start to be sorted from the chafe.

Our visits to the London Stadium, a horrible place to watch football have not been great, time flies and the Hammers have now been playing their 10 years, our first visit in August 2016 saw us win 3-0, Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and James Ward Prowse scoring the goals.

Overall we have had 8 League visits so far, we have won just 2, drawn just 1 and lost the other 5, our last win coming on Boxing Day 2021 when Mo Elyounoussi, James Ward Prowse & Jan Bednarek gave us a 3-2 win.

So it is a time to get another win and doing so would truly push us up into the chasing pack for automatic promotion.

Via Reuters