Another battle at the bottom awaits St Mary’s as Southampton entertain West Ham

Saints welcome West Ham to St Mary’s where a defeat for either side could plunge their campaigns into crisis.

Despite back-to-back wins at home, Southampton remain in the bottom three following a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle last week. The Magpies came from behind to snatch all three points and put a halt to their counterparts budding momentum.

But one positive from their trip to Tyneside was the continued form of Danny Ings. The Winchester born man has scored in the last five successive league games, taking his tally to 11 goals in all competitions.

Meanwhile, West Ham share similar form concerns. The Hammers sit two spots above Southampton in 16th place, but just a point separates the sides. With just one win in their last 10, Manuel Pellegrini is reportedly facing the axe if they do not take all three points on the south coast.

Team news

Yan Valery is the hosts only confirmed absentee after Ralph Hasenhuttl revealed the French full-back is out with a virus. Sofiane Boufal is a doubt after being unable to train all week due to an ongoing toe injury. However, he is expected to play some part of the Hammers clash. Stuart Armstrong (hamstring) returns.

Andriy Yarmolenko (lower back) faces a late fitness test while Aaron Cresswell (hamstring) and Jack Wilshere (groin) will be unavailable for the trip to the south coast. Manuel Lanzini has returned to training following a shoulder injury but the weekend’s clash will come too soon for the Argentinian.

Perhaps the biggest Irons’ casualty is that of their goalkeeper Lucas Fabianski, who remains sidelined with a hip injury. Pellegrini’s men have suffered defensively of late, with back-up keeper Roberto less than convincing.

Despite their defeat last week, Ralph Hasenhuttl insists the Saints are improving:

“We had a good chance on a difficult ground to take something. I think our performances are improving at the moment. We are playing better than we were a few weeks before.

“The two good results in the home games helped us massively and now we have another home game. The self-confidence at home is also coming back but we know that West Ham is also a very difficult opponent.”

Manuel Pellegrini believes consistency is key if the Hammers are to turn their fragile form around:

“All of us know that we need results. We have just five points from our last nine games in the Premier League. We need to return to being a consistent and solid team in the way we did against Chelsea, in the way we did for 60 minutes against Arsenal.

“I think that most of the Premier League teams this season have had a bad moment where they’ve had a lot of bad results in a row, not only Southampton or West Ham.

“Southampton are a good team with good players, as are all the other teams in the Premier League.

“We must be very concentrated in our defending and we must try to score from the beginning to try to win that game. They have good players and it will be a tough game.”

Head-to-head

Southampton wins: 50

Draws: 46

West Ham wins: 77