Sunderland V West Ham - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.Poyet wary of Carroll threatSunderland boss Gus Poyet has warned his players to beware the unique threat of a resurgent Andy Carroll when the Black Cats take on high-flying West Ham at the Stadium of Light.Former Newcastle star Carroll grabbed two goals as the Hammers soared to their current fourth place in the Barclays Premier League table with a 3-1 win over Swansea on Sunday.And despite his side succeeding in shutting out both Chelsea and Liverpool in recent weeks, Poyet knows they will have to be fully focused to prevent more goals from the 6ft 4ins front man.Poyet said: "Andy is special and different and I don't think you can find another one of him in the game right now."The adrenaline of being out for a while has brought him back at the highest level you can have and you need to be able to deal with that."It's a difficult game and we haven't had that kind of challenge yet of a player like Carroll, so the goalkeeper and the centre-halves and everyone else are going to have a difficult afternoon."Having come through a gruelling period relatively unscathed - Sergio Aguero's mauling apart - Poyet has now switched his attention to his side's festive programme as he looks to build towards a repeat of last year's end-of-season form.Fast-upcoming games against Newcastle, Hull and Aston Villa appear to represent more opportunity to turn a recent glut of four draws from their last five games into much-needed wins.Poyet added: "The challenge is to win as many of the next four games as possibleWe are not looking to have four draws and if they are normal games without any accidents we need to win."We are going to play the four to win and then the season will be totally different
Winning games puts you in a different situation - it brings your confidence back."Last year we started getting better during this time and we had a very good run of results and took it into January, so we are looking at this period in a very special manner."Poyet is set to recall Steven Fletcher to his starting line-up after the striker was an unused substitute at Anfield following a slight knock which forced him off against Manchester City.Sebastian Coates is available again after missing the game against his parent club but is likely to have to settle for a place on the bench, while Emanuele Giaccherini and Billy Jones are both still injured.Poyet was buoyed this week by Connor Wickham's decision to sign a new four-and-a-half year contract, adding: "I'm very pleased because it wasn't easy."The time was great for us and Connor to get to know each other better and show what he's capable of
There are not too many young English centre-forwards free so it was important for us to tie down Connor for another four-plus years."Stewart Downing insists West Ham are loving upsetting the odds after they gatecrashed the top four.The Hammers are fourth in the Premier League ahead of Saturday's trip to Sunderland.Boss Sam Allardyce spent a reported B#31million in the summer which was been dwarfed by the expenditure of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.Summer buys Diafra Sahko, Cheikhou Kouyate and Aaron Cresswell have helped ease the pressure on Allardyce, who was one of the favourites to be sacked at the end of last season.West Ham were fourth bottom on 14 points this time last year but Downing is revelling in being one of this season's surprise packages."It's good, teams have spent a lot of money and people expected them to be in the top four because of what they've spent but it doesn't always work that way," he told Press Association Sport."We have bought very well, the players coming in have settled well
Sometimes you see players coming to the Premier League struggle to adapt
It's a big plus for us."Southampton and the Hammers have shocked the top dogs during the first half of the season and Downing reckons breaking the 'big four' stranglehold on the Champions League spots is important."I think it would be good for the league," he said."If you looked at the league at the minute you'd say it was false but we're there on merit, we've done well and we've played some big teams and played them off the park on the day."We've beaten Liverpool and Manchester City and ground out a win against Newcastle, which we would have lost last season
We have shown good qualities."The Hammers head to the Stadium of Light on Saturday with ex-Liverpool winger Downing insisting they can maintain their European challenge thanks to their extra quality."We have to look at each game as it comes
It's a big thing for us, Christmas, hopefully we can get lucky with injuries and suspensions," said the 30-year-old."We had a difficult year last year, found it hard and were sucked in (to the relegation scrap) so this year we're playing with confidence."Selection gets hard and it's one the manager would like because he's never really had it
Everyone is fighting for their place and the step up in quality has been good this year."Midfielder Mark Noble is Allardyce's only injury concern
The 27-year-old recently broke the record for Premier League appearances for a West Ham player but will not add to his tally due to a problem with his Achilles tendon
Source : PA
Source: PA