West Ham, Chelsea Match preview

Its West vs East this weekend as two opposite ends of the fortune spectrum meet in a London derby, the west Londoners Chelsea who currently find themselves struggling in twelfth position in contrast to West Ham who are sat in a snug fourth place and approach this game unbeaten in their last six Premier League games.

Chelsea who will be playing their second fixture in 5 days will be without the long term injured Thibault Cortoius, the rapidly aging Branislav Ivanovic and Pedro who will more than likely be left out so he can fully recover from a knock sustained during last weekend’s win at home to Aston Villa.

West Ham who play their final season before moving to the Olympic stadium next year, boast an impressive away record so far this season with victories at The Emirates, The Etihad and Anfield. The Hammers will be looking to take full advantage of the reigning champions drop in form the season as they look to raise the bar at home where they need a kick with only four points from their last four games in the final season at the famous Old Boleyn ground, a home legacy that Slaven Billic will want to firmly discard before then end of the season.

Billic last week spoke of the need to improve home form and that he would like his team to take more chances at goal, “we don’t have to do it better, we have to do it more” he said in a press conference, last week.

The Hammers will have a near full strength team this with only Winston Reid nursing a back injury and Loanee Victor Moses ineligible against his parent club.

Jose Mourinho will confess that Chelsea needs to put an unbeaten run together if they are to salvage anything from this half of the season. "Step by step I think we are getting better," he said.

"We are not in a great position but we are working hard and slowly we will get back to what we had last season. “I’m sure that as a team we will improve. Confidence is not high when you are in a position like we are now in the Premier League but I'm sure we will do better.

"I will be happy when we get out of the [champions league] group and get closer to the top of the Premier League."

Chelsea have only yielded three wins from their first nine matches after cruising to a premier league victory by eight points last year, Jose will not only now have his work cut out to secure a top four position he also needs to save his reputation as the ‘special one’, nothing Chelsea are doing at the moment looks anything like special.

Potential starting line ups;

Chelsea;

Begovic, Terry, Cahill, Zouma, Azpilicueta, Matic, Fabregas, Oscar, Ramires , Hazard, Costa.

West Ham United;

Ardian, Cresswell, Tomkins, Jenkinson, Collins, Noble, Kouyate, Jelavic, Payet, Carrol, Sakho