With a bit of luck the Hammers could go up as far as 11th place in the PL standings. Huddersfield 3 points ahead of West Ham which means that a win is mandatory this Saturday.

Moyes’ squad is not for the bottom part of the league. It should be top 10 considering the talent. Things are looking up with the new manager as he is starting to get the best out of his players.

With the player morale being improved, Moyes now must deal with almost a dozen injuries. If the medical staff manages to pull some miracles in the next few days or weeks, West Ham will not have to worry about leaving the Premier League and could even focus on getting a spot in next year’s Europa League.

For now, the Hammers will have to put effort into helping the recovery of the following players:

• Jose Fonte – Ankle Injury – out since October is finally going to return this January. Not this Saturday though. He will be back later in the month.
• Edmilson Fernandes – Ankle Injury – picked up an ankle knock on the 10th of December. He has no scheduled return date.
• James Collins – Muscular Injury – 4th major injury in the past 12 months. Picked up the last one at Christmas. Has no return date at the moment.
• Sam Byram – Thigh Strain – out for over 2 months now. He is expected to return on Saturday. He will most likely be on the bench as it will be difficult for him to be 100% ready after being sidelined since the end of October.
• Aaron Cresswell – Back Injury – picked up a week ago. He will be fit for Saturday’s game but he may not be able to play the whole 90 minutes.
• Diafra Sakho – Knee Injury – picked up the injury against Bournemouth at Christmas. The 28-year-old has not been a team regular this season but he averaged almost 20 minutes per game so he can still be considered an important absence.
• Reece Oxford – Ankle Injury – his situation is somewhat complicated as he just returned from his Bundesliga loan. He was not included in the squad by Moyes and there’s no return date scheduled for him but he is wanted back in Germany
• Winston Reid – Groin Injury – picked up the injury in the FA Cup draw against Shrewsbury Town and will not be back in time for the Huddersfield game. Return is unknown.
• Marko Arnautovic – hamstring injury – not as bad as expected scans proved. He will be ready for the Saturday game despite being still in recovery mode at this point. This is really good news for Moyes who definitely could use a solid attacking player like the Austrian international

Huddersfield Town have almost half the injured player compared to City with 2 out of five ready to return on Saturday:

• Elias Kachunga – Medial Collateral Ligament Injury – even though the injury is a severe one, he will be back in March but there is no chance of an early return.
• Jon Stankovic – Anterior Cruciate Ligament Rupture – out since March 2017 will return in February at the earliest.
• Chris Lowe – Foot Knock – picked up on January 1st. Unlikely to play this Saturday even though he has his return date scheduled for this weekend.
• Martin Cranie – Ankle Injury – picked up this year. Nothing serious though as he is expected to be available against West Ham.
• Colin Quaner – Hamstring Injury – out after the Bolton game. Has no return date at this time.

Moyes has his team on an ascending trend and the team has a big chance of shedding some of that relegation stress by moving up a couple of places. Hopefully the long injury list which should hopefully drop to 6 or 7 by Saturday, will not be too big of an obstacle for the Hammers.

Plus the Hammers will be looking to conclude some business in the transfer window to offer some more resources to Moyes with the usual plethora of rumours but nothing concrete as yet.