West Ham face basement boys Wolves in arguably their biggest game of the season and Nuno Espirito Santo looks set to make three big changes.
Forget six-pointer, West Ham’s game at Wolverhampton Wanderers is life and death when it comes to Premier League survival.
Winless Wolves are already all but down with just three points to their name all season long.
Hammers fans fear they will be the gift horse as usual by becoming the first team to lose to Wolves in the Premier League this season.
Ominously, West Ham have their lowest points tally (14) at the halfway stage of the season since they were last relegated in 2011.
For Nuno Espirito Santo, the situation is perfectly clear.
Nuno hit by West Ham selection headache at worst time
The Portuguese faces two of his former clubs in the space of three days and nothing but six points will do following West Ham’s failure to beat Fulham or Brighton at home.
The Irons are standing at the crossroads for their Premier League future.
What CHANGES would you make to West Ham’s XI away to Wolves?
Paqueta out? Summerville in? What about Callum Wilson?
👇 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say
Victory for the Irons at Molineux, coupled with a defeat for Forest at Aston Villa would put Nuno’s side just two points behind Sean Dyche’s men ahead of facing the Tricky Trees at the London Stadium on Tuesday night.
Win that and West Ham would go out of the relegation zone, a point above Forest.
The Hammers must first focus on the task at hand and beating rock-bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers.
That may be harder than it seems given Wolves have been much improved of late, picking up a point in a draw at Man United last time out.
Credit: Alex Pantling/Getty Images
Nuno has some selection headaches at the worst possible time, though.
West Ham are already missing Aaron Wan-Bissaka and El Hadji Malick Diouf to AFCON.
Although one West Ham AFCON star could be back in time for Forest.
The problem is, the Hammers have been hit by a number of other injury doubts following the 1-1 draw with Brighton last time out.
West Ham’s head coach has caused much controversy and debate with some bizarre team selection decisions since his arrival in east London.
Given what is at stake, he simply cannot afford to get it wrong in the next two games.
Nuno makes three West Ham changes for Wolves
We think Nuno makes three West Ham changes for Wolves and a big call on £20m new boy Pablo.
Earlier this week Hammers News revealed West Ham faced a double injury blow disaster for Wolves.
Played for both – West Ham and Wolves! 🤝
Who would you pick from this XI to play for the Hammers today?
👇 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say
Jean-Clair Todibo and Lucas Paqueta have been big doubts all week.
West Ham have not released images or footage from training so no clues can be gathered from there.
To make matters worse Kyle Walker-Peters has also picked up a knock, leaving West Ham desperately short at full-back.
We think change number one will see Konstantinos Mavropanos replace Todibo alongside Max Kilman in defence.
Change number two will see Paqueta replaced by Crysencio Summerville after the Dutch winger was dropped for his poor form against the Seagulls.
Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
If Walker-Peters is not passed fit, expect Ezra Mayers to start at full-back or Ollie Scarles to be switched to right-back and Igor Julio to play as a makeshift left-back.
Callum Wilson will get the nod to start again up front.
New boy Pablo was signed for £20m in time to be registered for the game with Wolves.
West Ham confirmed that when making the announcement on Friday night.
But it remains to be seen whether he will be selected by Nuno for the squad.
Nuno makes big call on £20m Hammers new boy Pablo
Given West Ham’s lack of options and the fact every game and point is vital for the club to stay up, we think Nuno will call Pablo into the squad and have the in-form star on the bench.
Especially as Wilson rarely lasts past the hour mark – much to the frustration of fans and the player after West Ham supporters turned on Nuno during the Brighton game.
That means West Ham’s starting XI should look something like this for the huge must-win clash with Wolves, with three changes from the team which started against Brighton.
West Ham starting XI to face Wolves:
Areola, Mayers or Scarles, Mavropanos, Kilman, Scarles or Julio, Magassa, Potts, Fernandes, Summerville, Bowen, Wilson.
Join Our Newsletter
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox