West Ham United host Arsenal tonight and will look to steer clear from the relegation zone with a win.
The Hammers are currently just a point and two places above the drop zone following seven losses and just four wins in 15 league games, and a defeat against the Gunners will further compound their woes.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini will hope to get his starting XI and tactics right, and it will be interesting to see if he will start club-record signing Sebastien Haller.
The French striker has gone seven games without a goal, and with Michail Antonio fit again, Pellegrini could opt to choose the winger to lead the line.
West Ham skipper Mark Noble admits Haller is short of confidence at the moment, and has told him the two options he has.
“It is clear Sebastien Haller is short of confidence, but for a player like him coming into the Premier League, it was never going to be easy,” Noble wrote in his Standard column.
“It’s a tough one at the moment, because the team are struggling, he hasn’t been making the impact we saw in the first few games and strikers need to feed off goals. Against Chelsea, we looked really dangerous and Michail alone could have scored four. In contrast, it hasn’t been falling for Seb and when it’s like that you have the choice of two options.
“You either dig in, grind away, do the things that you know have worked before, keep learning and improving — or you go the other way, blame everyone else and think the fault lies with them. I’m sure Seb has the character to make things work for himself and still make this season a personal success.”
After scoring four goals and assisting one in his opening eight games, it appeared the 25-year-old had hit the ground running.
However, things haven’t quite gone as planned for a while, and it will be interesting to see how he responds.
While West Ham haven’t particularly played to Haller’s strength, the onus is on him to work things out and adapt to whichever style the team plays.
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