By Louis Nixon

The Hammers are set to take on Brighton at 19:30 tonight in the London Stadium, where fans will be travelling back to after our brutally painful 1-0 defeat to Fulham just three days ago. 

Brighton became the first team this season that the Hammers would’ve played against twice, where last time out it was universally agreed that Nuno’s side were robbed by Rutter and all three points should’ve gone our way. Instead, they were the last team we actually managed to score a point against, seeing as three successive defeats followed.  

It’s a game of significance for West Ham, and it almost feels as if it’s a make-or-break for the season. If the Hammers play as they did at the AMEX, there’s a likely chance they could muster up a result and maybe not walk away empty-handed. 

Nuno’s side today will be a telling factor, it’s almost a given that considering our lacklustre effort in previous fixtures, tonight we have to start Callum Wilson, ahead of Summerville or Lucas Paqueta, who both have received calls criticism over the last performances… we simply cannot go on not having a number nine start, it is much needed more than ever at this moment in time.  

The midfield of Potts, Magassa and Fernandes has to remain, considering that they’re our only hope we have for the midfield department, and even with the losses we’ve accumulated, they often end up being the standout to our performances and therefore shouldn’t change in the slightest. 

Given that the window hasn’t opened yet, we can’t exactly anticipate any changes in the defensive regions, but if we have some confidence and get behind the players, don’t let their heads drop, I seriously do believe we’ve got the ability to achieve a win. 

Brighton also has an atrocious record in December and are actually winless under Fabian Hurzeler’s tenure in the month so far, which has been ongoing for the last two seasons. 

We mustn’t forget that Brighton has been West Ham’s bogey team for years on end, and our record against them is nothing but bad luck. Fortunes have been hiding for a while now, but it’ll be a question if we can dig deep enough and search for it everywhere.