Three Southampton players to be involved for first time against West Ham?

Southampton are preparing for their next Premier League fixture with a home clash against West Ham upcoming this Saturday.

Fans will be wondering what sort of team Ralph Hasenhuttl will choose for the game with players due to arrive back from international games late in the week and other players potentially having more time in training leading up to the weekend.

Two players who could provide a different option are Lyanco and Thierry Small after their summer arrivals from Torino and Everton respectively.

Stuart Armstrong is also yet to make his first appearance this season after suffering with a calf injury and the club’s training gallery may have given some clues as to which of these three mentioned players will be ready.

Armstrong absent for pictures but Lyanco and Small in the thick of the action

Going on the southamptonfc.com gallery, it appears that Stuart Armstrong was not in training on Tuesday. This could be due to not recovering from his injury or just purely managing his workload as he gets closer to a return.

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Ralph Hasenhuttl will surely have an answer for the media and fans in his pre-match press conference on Thursday when he provides team news.

Lyanco and Thierry Small could certainly be part of the matchday squad to face West Ham after appearing in training yesterday. Jack Stephens and Mohammed Salisu have been the first-choice centre-backs so far this season, with Lyanco and Jan Bednarek potentially set to remain as the backup options this weekend.

Bednarek is due to play for Poland against England on Wednesday night and will not have much time back with his club teammates in the build-up to facing West Ham.

Other players in Tino Livramento, Che Adams, Mohamed Elyounoussi and Armando Broja will also be returning from international duty in the near future. Shane Long’s situation is unclear after his positive Covid-19 test whilst away with Ireland and Moussa Djenepo was pictured back in Saints training after playing for Mali recently.

Thierry Small is expected to be the second-choice left-back this season. Romain Perraud and Kyle Walker-Peters have played that role so far and will presumably be called on before Small right now because of his relative inexperience.