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West Ham take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Monday night knowing they can take a giant leap towards Premier League safety.
The Hammers remained outside the Premier League relegation zone by a solitary point after Spurs drew with Brighton.
Now Nuno Espirito Santo’s side know victory at Crystal Palace would extend the gap to Tottenham to four points with five games to play.
Survival is in West Ham’s hands and they can even afford to lose at Palace and still stay up as long as they match Tottenham’s results in those final five matches.
Nuno ponders one West Ham change for Palace clash
The pressure on the Hammers heading into the match against Oliver Glasner’s Eagles is different.
West Ham have been the hunters for months now as they closed a 13-point gap on Spurs to leapfrog them last weekend.
Who makes YOUR West Ham and Crystal Palace combined XI?
⚒️ 🆚 🦅
Now the Hammers are the hunted as they take on a Palace side who have nothing but merit award money to play for now in the league but plenty to focus on in Europe.
Palace are aiming to follow in West Ham’s footsteps by winning the Conference League after making the semi-finals by seeing off Fiorentina – the same team the Hammers beat to win the trophy three years ago.
Photo by Sebastian Frej/Getty Images
Glasner admitted he let his Palace players party before West Ham, after they won 4-2 on aggregate over in Italy on Thursday night.
Tottenham will understandably be concerned by that and the fact Palace have a semi-final to prepare for and may be tempted to rest players as a result.
Many of Palace’s stars will also be wary when playing ahead of that semi-final against Shakhtar Donetsk.
Nuno insists he is telling his players not to focus on the table but instead on simply performing and putting points on the board.
Hammers star Wan-Bissaka back in the team against old club?
The Portuguese has a fully fit West Ham squad to choose from – but that comes with its own problems.
As a result, one major West Ham change is being considered by Nuno for the crunch Crystal Palace clash.
How many points are we getting then? 😬
Feel free to tell me where I’m going wrong 😂
After a 10-day gap between games and with a fully fit squad, Nuno is expected to stick with largely the same side which beat Wolves convincingly.
There are three big decisions for Nuno to make.
Does he bring Jean-Clair Todibo back into the side and play five at the back given Palace are a step up in quality and West Ham are away from home?
Photo by Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images
Another change to ponder is Callum Wilson starting instead of Pablo. Although the Brazilian’s performance against Wolves – and the way he combined with Taty Castellanos – may sway Nuno’s thinking there.
However, the main selection dilemma for Nuno is whether he should bring reigning Hammer of the Year Aaron Wan-Bissaka back into the side to replace Kyle Walker-Peters.
Wan-Bissaka came through at Palace and knows them inside out.
He has also been one of West Ham’s best and most consistent performers since he arrived in east London.
Walker-Peters has done a solid job in the two games Wan-Bissaka has missed since arriving late back from international duty with DR Congo.
But Wan-Bissaka offers so much more going forward than Walker-Peters.
If Nuno plays a back five then expect Pablo or Taty to drop out for Todibo and Walker-Peters to be replaced by Wan-Bissaka from the side which beat Wolves.
Wan-Bissaka could come back in as the only change if Nuno sticks with four at the back too.
That is the big decision facing Nuno as the Hammers head to Selhurst in search of what could be a season-defining win given the pressure it would pile on Spurs.
Predicted West Ham starting XI to face Palace:
Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Mavropanos, Disasi, Diouf, Soucek, Fernandes, Summerville, Bowen, Castellanos, Pablo.
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