CAN WEST HAM STOP THE SLIDE? Hello and welcome to this afternoon's coverage of West Ham's trip to Watford. The Hammers are looking to make up lost ground on the top four after three league games without a win, while the Hornets are hoping to crawl away from the relegation zone following four defeats on the bounce.

When it comes to injuries, Watford will be without Tom Cleverley and Danny Rose today owing to a minor hamstring strain and a knee problem respectively.

Having watched his side succumb to a 3-2 defeat to Southampton at the weekend, David Moyes has switched things around here. In defence, Ben Johnson swaps in for Arthur Masuaku, in midfield Mark Noble replaces the suspended Declan Rice, while in attack Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini come in for Nikola Vlasic and Pablo Fornals.

Having made a passable start as Watford manager, winning two of his first five league games in charge, Ranieri has now presided over four consecutive defeats. The Hornets are currently hovering just above the relegation zone, two points above Burnley in 18th.

Things haven't been made any easier by a Covid outbreak at the club, which has seen their last three matches against Burnley, Crystal Palace and Wolves postponed. Speaking ahead of today's game, Ranieri said: "I have just [on Monday] had the first training session all together.

"Fortunately today all my players arrived together and that is very, very important. I have just the injured players and it's a bad moment now.

"It's a bad moment because the players can't train properly and I hope nobody suffers some injuries because you know, when they don't train, and they arrive at the end [of the game] it is very difficult to play, but that's it."

CONFIRMED TEAMS - WATFORD: Bachmann, King, Masina, Cathcart, Tufan, Sissoko, Femenia, Dennis, Hernandez, Sierralta, Kucka. /// WEST HAM: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Johnson, Noble, Soucek, Bowen, Lanzini, Benrahma, Antonio.