West Ham manager Sam Allardyce is facing the prospect of being without a number of important players like James Collins for the match against Manchester United.

The defender is amongst the several first-team players currently on the sidelines for the London outfit, who host United this weekend.

Allardyce has always relished the opportunities to beat United, but his task will be made a little bit difficult this time around since Louis Van Gaal’s team have been on an incredible run of late. They are still no closer towards cementing the top four place, but with just one defeat since December, they will prove hard to beat.

West Ham have already secure some impressive results against the top clubs at Upton Park. They include positive results against the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City, while Allardyce felt that the club should have had at least a point from the match against Arsenal recently. This form against the top teams should give them a lot of hope going into this weekend, but Allardyce has tried to lower their expectations by claiming that his team are likely to be without a number of first-team regulars like Collins, Andy Carroll, and Winston Read.

After a spectacular first half to the season, West Ham has had only one win since Boxing Day. “It’s obviously particularly worrying at the moment. I’ve got that many players injured I brought my list in to read out.Reid, Collins, Demel, Henry, Poyet and Carroll lie in our medical room at the moment so we are not so sure how many of those are going to make Sundays game.Could they all be out? Definitely,” said Allardyce. The only victory for West Ham during this period came in the 3-0 success over league strugglers Hull City in front of their own supporters.