West Ham United will be a relieved lot after they notched up a fortuitous victory against a dogged Burnley goalkeeper and their defence. The Hammers have been pitiful this season and have seen their ambitious targets been smashed to smithereens. While it might sound harsh, it is an honest assessment of their season till now. Exit from the Europa league, major issues with their new stadium, injuries and loss of form of almost all the players at once. But Slaven Bilic has lived through it and will be hopeful he gets an extended stay at the club so that he can attempt a turnaround which they deserve.
There are bound to be additions in the January transfer window but before that they will have to see out the remaining matches in December and look to win as many games as possible.
The win against Burnley at home would have been a big boost and they now have to deal with Hull City at the London Stadium which is another extremely winnable match for the Hammers.
The Tigers have had troubles this season and most of it has led from an apparent lack of quality throughout the squad and while they might be formulating plans to get the better of West Ham United, the Hammers will be confident of bagging another 3 points.
PREDICTED WEST HAM UNITED XI VS HULL CITY (3-4-2-1)
DEFENCE
Randolph has replaced Adrian as the first choice and has been impressive since then. He will be buoyed by the clean sheet and if he can get his act together, another clean-sheet on the cards.
Bilic has employed a 3-man defence recently and it is expected he will be sticking to that formula. Reid, Ogbonna and Kouyaté are likely to fill up the three slots with Collins unlikely to be fit in time for the match.
MIDFIELD
The fullbacks will be moved forward into the midfield area and will play as wingbacks. Aaron Creswell will be on the left-side of midfield. Mark Noble and Obiang are likely to form the central midfield pair and will look to dominate the midfield battle between the two sides.
Noble survived a scare against Burnley as his saved penalty fell kindly to the Englishman and he converted it to save himself the blushes. West Ham’s top scorer Antonio will be the right-wing back and will be giving Robertson a difficult time throughout the 90 minutes.
ATTACK
Lanzini and Payet will once again line-up behind Andy Carroll and going by the occurrences this season, a goal from a set-piece looks a viable possibility with these players involved.
