West Ham tonight have the chance to take a significant stride towards European football next season when we host Brighton at the London Stadium.

The new year and midway point of the Premier League campaign sees our Hammers sit healthily in 6th spot, and although the position itself cannot be improved upon later, 3 more points would certainly give some distance between Moyes’ side and the chasing pack.

Earlier in the season West Ham finally put to bed the Brighton hoodoo, by beating the Seagulls for the first time since their promotion to the top flight back in 2017 – and there is hope a repeat can be realised later tonight.

Brighton are of course expected to provide our Hammers with a stern test, as the visitors are in a position to leapfrog West Ham should they win the encounter.

Our Podcast co-host and club insider ExWHUEmployee acknowledges the importance of tonight’s game, although is understandably frustrated that we may have some noticeable absentees for the fixture.

“If we can get a result today, this will really open up a nice gap between the teams below us and keep us in touch with a Champions League spot,” said out man-in-the-know.

“It’s majorly frustrating that we could be missing Kudus, Paqueta, Aguerd and possibly Zouma for such an important game – but we have the quality and Brighton have many players out – so we can still win this!

“Let’s hope we do as well as we did in the away fixture and get those three points.”