West Ham United boss Manuel Pellegrini is looking for his side to round off 2018 on a high, the Evening Standard reports.
Pellegrini’s side will take on Southampton on Thursday with the Saints the only side still to take on the Hammers.
A 2-0 defeat to Watford last week ended a four-game winning run for Pellegrini’s side, though on the whole the Hammers have been playing some good football this season despite losing their four opening Premier League games.
The Hammers boss revealed that he is eager for his side to enter 2018 on a high by leaving St Mary’s with all three points.
We have the last game of the first part of the season. If you tell me after we lost four games that we can finish with 27 points, I’d think that would be a good first round for us.
We know we have to play a good game against a team that have won their last two games. We will try to recover the points that we lost at home. We will try to add three points more to get to 27.
Fabian Balbuena, Marko Arnautovic, Lucas Perez and Javier Hernandez are all unlikely to feature for the Hammers due to injury, but the Argentine boss is confident that Angelo Ogbanna is one player who can step up to the challenge.
I think Angelo Ogbonna demonstrated against Watford that he is also a good centre back. He has been working very hard. We have this option. I trust a lot in him.
Javier had a kick in his back during the week before Watford.
He couldn’t work in midweek. Now against Watford he had the same problem with some strain in his hamstring.
We need to play a lot of games in December. Seven games, then after that six more in January. Unfortunately for us we have eight players without the option to return soon. Maybe Marko Arnautovic can be, I don’t know about against Southampton, but soon.
We need now to see about the other two players, Chicharito and Balbuena. So that’s a big problem but we need to trust the squad and try to make a good rotation.
