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Saints At West Ham United The Preview

Saints travel to East London to face West Ham United in good spirits after rediscovering their mojo in the Boxing Day thrashing of Arsenal.

Ronald Koeman faces a dilemma in terms of team selection for the trip to Upton Park, he might well have changed a few things with the games coming thick and fast this week, but after the win over the Gunners he will be very tempted to stick with virtually the same side who won so well on Boxing Day.

One doubt from the starting line up though might be Jordy Clasie who put in a great shift against the Gunners but limped off shorty after the hour mark.

That would mean that Oriol Romeu would probably replace the Dutch midfielder and he has never let Saints down and showed that in his performance on Boxing Day.

After a result like that and a team full of confidence and chomping at the bit Koeman will be loatheto make too many changes unless enforced, if Clasie does not pass muster he will join Jay Rodriguez, Fraser Forster, Cedric Soares & Graziano Pelle on the injured list, that is a lot of quality players to be missing and perhaps the difference now than last year when we were facing a similar dilemma is that we have that extra quantity and quality in the squad.

So Saints travel to the Hammers with confidence and looking to recapture their away form that had seen the unbeaten prior to the visit to Manchester City two road trips ago.

West ham have injury problems of their own and are faced with having to play a player or two who are not 100% in the middle of a gruelling Xmas programme.

Like every game Saints have to get a grip quieten down both the home side and the home crowd and then put their mark on the game, they will be confident of doing that after beating Arsenal.

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