westhamfans.org

When the team selections were released for the match against Southampton many Hammers fans were deeply concerned to see just how many players were unavailable, Pablo Zabaleta's late withdrawal because of a virus meant that West Ham were not even able to fill the bench and had only six players available!

Southampton: McCarthy, Targett, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Yoshida, Valery, Romeu, Lemina, Armstrong, Remond, Ings Subs: Gunn, Stephens, Long, Austin, Elyounoussi, Ward-Prowse, Ramsay
West Ham: Fabianski, Cresswell, Ogbonna, Diop, Antonio, Rice, Obiang, Snodgrass, Anderson, Diangana, Perez Subs: Adrian, Carroll, Noble, Masuaku, Silva, Coventry

Manuel Pellegrini knew ahead of the Christmas and New Year schedule that he was going to be hard pressed to put out an effective team for all the matches, his problem has been made more acute as both his 'general' in defence, Fabian Balbuena, and his forward Chicharito look increasingly unlikely to feature in the first of four games in ten days tonight at St Mary's against a ressurgent Southampton side.