West Ham United travel to Brighton on Saturday looking to get their season up and running after the opening weekend humbling by Manchester City.
The Hammers got the new Premier League campaign off to a poor start yet again as they were thrashed 5-0 at home by the defending champions.
Manuel Pellegrini takes his West Ham side on the road looking to restore some pride.
West Ham looking to restore some pride
Brighton got off to a flying start under new boss Graham Potter with a 3-0 away win over Watford.
So they will be no pushovers on their own patch.
There were some standout performances for West Ham against City, for the wrong reasons.
And Pellegrini looks set to make two big calls just two games in.
Pellegrini to make two changes?
Aaron Cresswell has been on the wane for some time now. And the Liverpudlian was ‘torn to pieces’ as pundit Tony Cascarino put it on talkSPORT.
West Ham fans wanted to see the club sign two new fullbacks in the summer.
Those pleas fell on deaf ears, though, so now Pellegrini will have to make do with drafting Arthur Masuaku back into the side in place of Cresswell.
Masuaku was rested last week after a hectic summer with Congo at the African Nations.
He will offer more pace and guile down the left. But as any West Ham fan will admit, he is just as much of a liability defensively as Cresswell has become.
Hammers hoping Fornals and Haller hit it off
The other change will be in attack with Michail Antonio – substituted at half-time against City – making way for new boy Pablo Fornals.
The Spaniard showed some neat touches against City.
And Pellegrini will look for Fornals and striker Sebastien Haller to start forging a partnership that can get West Ham among the goals.
Predicted West Ham XI to face Brighton:
Fabianski, Fredericks, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku, Rice, Wilshere, Anderson, Lanzini, Fornals, Haller.
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