West Ham looking to turn things around against Fulham

Tonight’s clash against Fulham could be a turning point for West Ham after their disastrous last outing against Arsenal where they lost 5-1.

Fulham won’t be a pushover tonight and the Hammers need to stay focused against Martin Jol’s side as they have only managed to squeeze 2 wins out of 15 games and would be looking to change their fortunes against Allardyce’s men. At the moment they are 14th in the League table; just 6 points shy of the dreaded drop zone.

Some welcome news for the Hammers is that big forward Andy Carroll, currently on loan from Liverpool could make an appearance tonight against the cottagers. He should be on the bench after being out since last November with a knee problem.

Hammers new signing Emanuel Pogatetz looks set to join the first team tonight against Fulham with George McCartney (knee), James Collins (hamstring) and young Dan Potts (concussion) all missing from the squad.

After the thrashing by Arsenal, Sam Allardyce has called on his Hammers for a response as they have only managed a win in their last 8 Premier League outings.

“We know what the players are capable of as they have proved it, but we have got to get them to that level of performance again,” said Big Sam.

“Fulham are in a similar situation to ourselves where performances have been good, but results haven’t followed.

“It is all about winning football matches and we have both failed to do that.

“Too many draws have turned to losses and too many supposed wins have ended up as draws – particularly the last one against QPR when we battered them from start to finish.”

Emmanuel Frimpong should make his debut at Craven Cottage tonight for the clash. Frimpong joined Fulham on loan from Arsenal and the 21 year old is raring to go.

However, Fulham won’t be counting on Kieran Richardson, Mahamadou Diarra or Kerim Frei – as they are all out injured.

21 year old Frimpong spoke to Fulham TV and thinks his team will come through the bad patch they are going through.

“I think when you are in a position like Fulham are at the moment you need players to be calm and not to panic.

“Every team goes through a patch in the season when you’re not getting results.

“As long as the manager and the team know there are players that can perform and it is only a little slip, I think we will be fine.

West Ham need to focus on tonight’s game more than ever. Both teams have players out injured and that has evened the scores somewhat. The Hammers are just 2 points in front of Fulham and in 12th position and Big Sam will be looking to put some more ground between the two clubs tonight at Craven Cottage.

It will be a great game, make no mistake, as Martin Jol’s side will also be looking to capitalize on the Hammers poor performance against the Gunners.