New Southampton manager Mark Hughes will look to pick up his first Premier League win in his first top flight match in charge of the south coast outfit when they face fellow strugglers West Ham United in a potentially season-defining clash at the London Stadium on Saturday.

A 3-0 defeat against Newcastle United at St James’ Park in their previous top flight clash saw Mauricio Pellegrino relieved of his duties and has left Saints in 18th position and two points from safety with eight matches of the season remaining.

Hughes did triumph on his bow as he guided his side through to an FA Cup semi-final tie against Chelsea as they beat League One high-flyers Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium prior to the international break, and the Welshman will hope that result will have brought some much-needed confidence to the squad.

The 54-year-old will know the tough challenge that lies ahead of him considering his team still have to come up against Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City during the run-in, and he will know that realistically the encounter against the Irons is must-win.

Saints may fancy their chances against the club that lie one place and two points above them in the table too, considering David Moyes’ men have lost three successive Premier League matches by a three-goal margin, while they suffered crowd trouble in the 3-0 defeat to Burnley at the London Stadium last time out.

Hughes went with a 4-4-2 system instead of the commonly-used 4-2-3-1 formation against the Latics and made two changes with Sofiane Boufal and Manolo Gabbiadini coming into the starting XI in place of Nathan Redmond and James Ward-Prowse, and he may be considering making further alterations to his XI on Saturday.

Here is how Southampton must line up when they face West Ham, ahead of Alex McCarthy in goal…

Southampton have started with the same settled back four for much of 2018, and if the quartet are all fit then they should be in the XI at the London Stadium.

While Wesley Hoedt and Jack Stephens remained at Staplewood during the international break, Cedric Soares flew off for international duty with Portugal, and while he featured against Egypt on Friday he didn’t play a single minute of his country’s 3-0 friendly defeat against the Netherlands on Monday, and should have returned unscathed.

There could be some doubt over Ryan Bertrand’s participation at the London Stadium however given that he pulled out of the England squad with a minor back problem, with Sam McQueen the 28-year-old’s likely replacement if he doesn’t make it.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Mario Lemina have got the nod in the middle of the park ahead of Oriol Romeu in Southampton’s previous two matches, and Mark Hughes has another big decision to make in what is such a huge clash against West Ham.

While Lemina is probably a certain starter because of how good he is on the ball and his ability to bring it forward, the 54-year-old manager could be tempted to bring the more defensively aware Romeu in alongside the Gabon international at the London Stadium.

That would be harsh on Hojbjerg, who received great praise from the fans for his Wigan display, after he really stepped up against Wigan last time and scored his first goal for the club however, and Hughes should stick with the duo in centre, once again flanked by two of the club’s main creators in Sofiane Boufal and Dusan Tadic out wide.

Hughes went with club-record signing Guido Carrillo and Manolo Gabbiadini up top against Wigan, but he should look to take both out of the starting XI for the trip to face David Moyes’ men.

The former failed to make much of an impact at all at the DW Stadium and is without a goal in his opening nine games for the club, while the latter looks shot of confidence after missing a decent one-on-one chance and then seeing his penalty well saved by Christian Walton in the Latics goal.

Southampton fans will hope that top goalscorer Charlie Austin is fit enough to start after recovering from a hamstring injury, while Hughes should start Shane Long next to him with the Republic of Ireland international able to press and put pressure on a West Ham defence that has conceded 11 goals in their last three Premier League matches.

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