West Ham will be looking to get their second win of the season against Premier League new boys Middlesborough on Saturday afternoon.
The Hammers have conceded 11 goals in their last three games and need to put things right quickly.
Middlesborough will travel to London confident of getting all three points with West Ham in poor form. With new signings Negredo and Stuani already off and running for Boro, West Ham’s defence will be looking to keep them quiet.
The Hammers will be hoping that they can get their defensive issues sorted for this game with Aaron Cresswell looking to return to action soon.
With Mark Noble in poor form, Slaven Bilic must decide whether to stick with him or listen to the fans who have been calling calling for the West Ham skipper to be dropped.
We’ve looked at five key battles that will go a long way to determining the winner of the game:
Adrian Vs Negredo
This will be a rematch from a few years ago from when Negredo was at Manchester City. Some Hammers fans will remember Adrian conceding six goals from City in a 6-0 loss at the Boleyn Ground.
Negredo has already started where he left off with a goal already this season.
Adrian will be looking to keep his second clean sheet of the season after conceding 11 goals in his last three games.
Byram Vs Downing
A former Hammer returns and hopefully will not haunt us!
Stewart Downing enjoyed two glorious seasons with the Hammers, scoring seven goals in that time, including a free kick winner against Tottenham.
Byram will be looking to stop any crosses in from Downing into Negredo,
Byram has a slight pace advantage on Downing, however, he will still have to be on top form if he is going to stop him crossing with his stronger foot.
Noble Vs Ramírez
Noble will be looking to rediscover the form of last season. With the chants of “Too good for England” dying out this could be the make or break season for the skipper.
Ramírez will be a tricky customer for Noble to stop, he has the pace and skill to ease past players. It will be a fairly even fight between the two. Ramírez posses great long shooting so Noble will need to make sure he closes him down quickly.
Lanzini Vs Ayala
Manuel Lanzini will be looking to recapture his form from previous weeks after having a relatively poor game against Southampton, where he was substituted at half time.
He will be looking to use his dribbling to get through the defensive midfield and pass it off to either the wings or through to Zaza.
Ayala will be looking to shut down any type of play by West Ham’s attacking players. He has a massive height advantage on Lanzini. However, I can’t see this coming as a factor to much other than possibly having a slight strength advantage.
Zaza Vs Valdés
Zaza will be looking to score his first goal in the Premier League. He has looked fairly poor for West Ham so far; some fans may be looking to see Ashley Fletcher play.
Valdés will be looking to get into form he used to have at Barcelona, having impressed some fans in recent Boro games.