If Southampton are serious about automatic promotion, they need a result at West Ham
West Ham United will be aiming to win the Championship title come the end of the gruelling 46-game season.
Nuno Espirito Santo has a ridiculous pool of players to choose from for the level, with Jarrod Bowen a 22-time England international, and both Manor Solomon and Joel Piroe have won the second tier title before with Leeds United.
Currently, they are in an intense battle for top spot with both Swansea City and Middlesbrough, but Sky Sports' Andy Hinchcliffe, when previewing the weekend's action, stated that he think it's West Ham "plus one" other team, in the tussle for the automatic promotion spots.
Southampton harbour their own automatic promotion hopes, with several St. Mary's figures chiming with their ambitious thoughts as to where they want the South Coast giants to finish, as they hunt down more and more wins.
Saints want to be in the automatic promotion fight
Flynn Downes was speaking during pre-season about his hunger to right the wrongs of last season's Spygate misstep by winning the title.
The energetic number four, who could miss out on the weekend's game through injury, annoyingly, spoke of a chip being on the Saints' shoulder regarding their Spygate mistreatment, and how this could spur them on to try and lift the title.
Daniel Peretz, another key first team regular under Eckert, has also spoke of his desire to become a second tier champion, with the goalless draw against Bolton Wanderers frustrating the ex-Bayern Munich goalkeeper, as dropped points like that could come back to bite them.
Unfortunately, already, it feels like they're playing catch up, due to frustrating results like that 0-0 stalemate with Trotters, and also the fact they were sanctioned with a four point deduction to start the campaign.
To show they can compete near the top and stay there, they'll have to go the London Stadium and topple Nuno's extremely confident hosts, with all this fighting talk cheap if they slip away from the pack of the teams near the summit.
They'll need to secure a result at West Ham
Already, at the time of writing, Eckert and Co. find themselves a sizeable five points away from the Hammers.
Cutting that points gap to two keeps them in touching distance of those elusive spots, but, if they were to taste the sting of an away day defeat, they would be a horrible eight points adrift of Nuno's men gunning for the title.
It feels pretty crucial, therefore, that they go to the London Stadium - irrespective of any annoying injuries - and give their all to try and grab a win, or they could be cast aside, even at this early stage of the season.
Southampton do have it in them to shock a table-topper, having beat both Swansea City and Millwall at home in convincing fashion, when they were early frontrunners.
It's a completely different kettle of fish going to West Ham, with Bowen in the inspired form he is in with a frightening 11 goal contributions, and picking up a result, though, so we will learn a lot about the Saints' character when the final whistle is blown.
Finn Azaz has been speaking about his team's want to "stamp their authority" in the build-up to the clash in London.
The time for talking is over now, with Eckert praying that whatever side he selects later on today can do a job on the Hammers, as the South Coast visitors become an outside threat to the top two.
