Julen Lopetegui has made two changes to his West Ham United starting XI for the Boxing Day Premier League fixture at Southampton.
Both of the switches come in midfield, where **Carlos Soler** is in for the suspended Lucas Paquetá, while **Guido Rodríguez** takes the place of Edson Álvarez.
Soler returns to the team after missing last weekend’s 1-1 home draw with Brighton & Hove Albion through suspension himself, having been shown five yellow cards, and Paquetá’s enforced absence today is for the same reason.
The Spain international had started the five matches prior to his ban and registered his first assist for the Club in the home defeat by Arsenal on 30 November.
FIFA World Cup winner Rodríguez is back in the team after six games on the bench and makes his first start since the goalless home draw with Everton on 9 November.
Otherwise, the team remains unchanged from the visit of the Seagulls.
Łukasz Fabiański, who became our fifth oldest player to make a first-team appearance against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 9 December, starts in goal for the tenth Premier League match in a row, and is seeking his third clean sheet of the season.
In front of the former Poland international, the back four is unchanged, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Dinos Mavropanos, Maximilian Kilman and Emerson selected.
The midfield three is completed by Tomáš Souček, who has scored three of his four Premier League goals this season on the road – at Crystal Palace, Brentford and Newcastle United.
The forward line will again be led by Germany international Niclas Füllkrug, who starts for the second time in the Premier League following his return from injury at start of December.
Captain Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus will fill the wide attacking berths, with the latter having scored West Ham’s goal against Brighton last Saturday afternoon.
Bowen scored his first goal on his first start for the Hammers against the Saints at London Stadium back in February 2020 – the Irons’ final home game with a capacity crowd before the COVID pandemic.
Álvarez is on the substitutes’ bench, as are goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, defenders Vladimír Coufal, Aaron Cresswell and Jean-Clair Todibo, midfielders Andy Irving and Luis Guilherme, winger Crysencio Summerville and forward Danny Ings.
For Southampton, former Hammer and lifelong West Ham fan Flynn Downes starts, as does Nigerian forward Paul Onuachu, who started both legs for Genk against the Irons in the UEFA Europa League group stage in the autumn of 2021.
**Southampton:** Ramsdale, Sugawara, Harwood-Bellis, Bednarek ©, Wood, Walker-Peters, Downes, Ugochukwu, Fernandes, Armstrong, Onuachu
Subs: McCarthy (GK), Manning, Bree, Aribo, Lallana, Fraser, Sulemana, Archer, Dibling
**West Ham United:** Fabiański, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Emerson, Rodríguez, Souček, Kudus, Soler, Bowen ©, Füllkrug
Subs: Areola (GK), Coufal, Cresswell, Todibo, Irving, Álvarez, Luis Guilherme, Summerville, Ings
**Referee:** Lewis Smith
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