Hello! I'm Shane and I'll be guiding you through West Ham's trip to West Bromwich Albion tonight. Midweek Premier League games are brilliant, aren't they? They always warm the cockles on a frosty December night. Some people use the famous Coca Cola advert as reason to get excited about Christmas, but for me it's when we've got a full compliment of league fixtures on a Tuesday and Wednesday night. Fantastic stuff.

There has been very little festive cheer - or cheer of any kind - down at The Hawthorns, however, as Alan Irvine's men were booed off the field after losing 1-0 to Arsenal on Saturday. It wasn't so much about the opposition, because a lot of teams will lose to Arsenal, but it was the Baggies' third consecutive defeat and the pressure seems to be on Irvine now.

They were doing alright there for a while; beating Spurs away and drawing with Manchester United, but they've won just four points from a possible 15 since holding the Red Devils in mid-October. It's just not been good enough for West Brom or their fans evidently, and there's another big test ahead of them because, well, West Ham have been a bit special so far.

Did anyone expect the Hammers to be fifth in the Premier League table by December, one point off the Champions League places? I didn't, but that's the reality. If not for Southampton's freakish form then Sam Allardyce's side would certainly be the surprises packages this season.

Let's address the elephant room: will they drop away, like so many have done in the past after a barnstorming start? It's possible, but they've got some stellar names to return. It's been very much a team effort, but Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia and Alex Song have played such a big role in the Hammers' form, and the good news is that they're set to return from injury shortly. Valencia, in particular, could actually be involved tonight it seems. Let's have a look.

Before we see how both teams line up this evening, why not take two minutes and have a look at what the lads down at Sports Mole HQ have had to say on this one? Go ahead, I'll be right here. See you in a few!

WEST BROM XI: Foster, Wisdom, Lescott, Dawson, Baird, Gardner, Brunt, Dorrans, Sessegnon, Anichebe, Berahino

WEST HAM XI: Adrian, Reid, Cresswell, Nolan, Tomkins, Kouyate, Carroll, Zarate, Downing, Jenkinson, Amalfitano

WEST BROM SUBS: Myhill, Gamboa, McAuley, Mulumbu, Varela, Samaras, Ideye

WEST HAM SUBS: Jaaskelainen, Jarvis, O'Brien, Collins, Demel, Cole, Valencia

We shall start by having a look at the West Brom team, and I can tell you that manager Irvine makes two changes from the side that went down 1-0 here to Arsenal. Left-back Sebastien Pocognoli is injured and drops out for Chris Baird, while Youssouf Mulumbu drops to the bench for striker Victor Anichebe.

Anichebe will partner Saido Berahino up front in a 4-4-2 it seems, with Stephane Sessegnon, Graham Dorrans, Chris Brunt and Craig Gardner lining up in midfield. Baird comes into a defence comprising of Craig Dawson and Joleon Lescott at centre-half, with Liverpool loanee Andre Wisdom at right-back. Ben Foster stays in nets as you'd expect.

On to West Ham now and Allardyce makes three changes from that impressive 1-0 win over Newcastle at the weekend. Winston Reid, who was suspended for that one, comes back into defence to displace James Collins and partner James Tomkins at centre-half. The injured Mark Noble drops out for Kevin Nolan, and Matt Jarvis drops to the bench for Mauro Zarate.

Valencia, who has been out of action since November 8, returns to the dugout alongisde Collins, Carlton Cole, Jarvis, Joey O'Brien, Guy Demel and Jussi Jaaskelainen. You'll find Brown Ideye, West Brom's record signing, on their bench by the way. He needs a bit of inspiration because it looks like he's on a one-way trip to flop city at the moment. He can room with Mesut Ozil.

Okay let's have a look at a few stats ahead of kickoff, and we can't go much further without highlighting West Brom's abysmal home form. The Baggies have won THREE out of their last 21 outings at The Hawthorns, a run that extends all the way back to last November believe it or not.

Despite their poor record at home, there is a good omen in the sense that one of those three victories came against West Ham, with Saido Berahino scoring that day to give the hosts a 1-0 win over their London counterparts in what was Pepe Mel's first and last home victory as Baggies boss.

Speaking of Berahino, what do we make of the West Brom striker? He blazed trails early on with eight goals in his first 10 games of the season, but he's been a little quiet as of late and has not found the net in any of his last five outings. He actually hit the bar late on against Arsenal so he has been a touch unlucky not to add to his seven Premier League goals, and he's far and away the Baggies' biggest goal threat tonight.

Who can West Ham look to for a bit of inspiration then? Andy Carroll? Lol. That was a joke. Of course Carroll is a goal threat and West Brom will need to play well to combat his towering presence tonight, but it's Mauro Zarate who might catch the eye. He scored in the 2-1 defeat to Everton two weeks and, well, he's a tricky so-and-so, isn't he? I fancy him for a goal tonight actually. Remember this entry, because I won't.

We've already looked at West Brom's ominous home form, but another stat that doesn't particularly inspire confidence tonight is the fact that they've only scored once in their last four games - and even that was an own goal, thanks to Esteban Cambiasso's, er, winner against Leicester.

PREDICTION: I think Irvine is too inexperienced managerially speaking to dig the Baggies out of their rut, so I'll punt for a 2-1 West Ham win. Maybe 3-1 actually. Carroll, Zarate and Kevin Nolan on the scoresheet. I'll go for 1-1 at half-time, too! Kickoff is around six minutes away now folks.

Right, the players are out on the field, doing the pre-match handshakes and all that stuff while a Train song echoes around the Hawthorns.

Plenty of West Brom fans here despite the negativity surrouding the team's form, which is good to see. But they need to get behind the team tonight because booing them makes for quite a toxic atmosphere. Poor Alan Irvine had "you don't know what you're doing" chants levelled at him for the visit of Arsenal on Saturday, which can't be good for the players can it? They need to be the 12th man.

KICKOFF: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand we're off at The Hawthorns. West Ham get us underway. Let's go!

It looks like Saido Berahino is playing out left, where he plays for England Under-21s I think. That's a pretty gutsy move, given how much pressure Irvine is already under. He's their top goalscorer by quite a distance so I hope for his sake it pays off.

We're only four minutes in but Berahino has looked lively so far. He has just made a mug of Carl Jenkinson and played a tidy disguised pass to Anichebe, but Adrian was quickly off his line to collect.

West Brom the better team thus far, and Chris Brunt whips in a very decent cross with that wand of a left foot of his, and Craig Dawson connects with it but it ends up being a clearance oddly enough. Promising start by the hosts.

SHOT! We've had our first shot of the game and it's Anichebe, who thrashes at the ball from Chris Baird's deep cross, but it's well, well, well over the bar. Still very promising for West Brom.

What a brilliant start from the Baggies, who move into a one-goal lead thanks to Craig Dawson, who gets on the end of Graham Dorrans's free kick to head past Adrian. Big error from James Tomkins, who conceded the very soft foul which led to the free kick after dragging down Anichebe.

Have West Ham finally kicked into the gear since the goal then? Absolutely not. It's still all West Brom. Sam Allardyce's side haven't woken up yet at all.

Mike Jones is the referee tonight by the way. He might think that he might have something to prove after his poor display at St Mary's at the weekend, booking Sergio Aguero for diving when replays showed that it was a pretty stick-on penalty. He's been good so far tonight.

BOOKING: James Tomkins is the recipient of the game's first yellow card after a bad challenge on Anichebe. Tomkins has had a nightmare first 20 minutes: he conceded the free kick that led to the goal, he lost Dawson for the goal, and now he's just been booked.

CHANCE! What a goalmouth scramble this was! Ben Foster did brilliantly to save Kevin Nolan's acrobatic effort, before both sets of players proceeded to scrap each other trying to find the ball, but West Brom survive.

West Ham coming into this one slowly but surely, with Carl Jenkinson fizzing a brilliant ball into the danger zone there but nobody was on hand to convert it.

This was brilliant from West Brom, casually playing their way out of danger from deep in their own, but Andre Wisdom goes and spoils it by passing straight to Kouyate. Very decent composure that, until Wisdom got it of course.

Andy Carroll is frustrated. Very frustrated. The big striker has literally pushed Craig Dawson over there after he shielded from reaching Jenkinson's high cross. No foul, though.

Big Sam is frustrated now. Very frustated. Allardyce throws his hands up after his troops wasted some good build-up play, with Kevin Nolan's incisive pass reaching Amalfitano, who tried to flick it on to Zarate but failed miserably.

Zarate is zipping around the place like a wasp. He just produced one or two neat step-overs before fizzing a low cross into the near post, but Andy Carroll was lurking at the back post. He needed to make a darting run there.

BOOKING: Chris Brunt now goes into the book for a foul on Kevin Nolan. It was a bit of a lunge to be fair.

This is classic Kevin Nolan this is. The veteran midfielder finds a yard of space in the box to head into the roof of the net after Ben Foster kept out Andy Carroll's spectacular overhead kick.

It had been coming to be fair. West Brom lost all their momentum after the goal, and it's hard to begrudge West Ham their equaliser. Completely deserved I reckon. They have to go again now.

Five minutes until the break now and West Brom are back on top again, with Craig Gardner rifling an effort at goal there but it's well blocked.

Alan Irvine will be telling Anichebe to get at James Tomkins more in the second half because he has looked very, very dodgy back there, and he's already been booked. He's walking a tightrope out there.

Chris Brunt looks like he's going off here. He's pulled up and already handed the armband to Joleon Lescott.

Ouch. This will hurt West Brom, who go into the break trailing after James Tomkins planted a last-minute header past Ben Foster. He rose above Craig Dawson to connect with Stewart Downing's corner to leave Foster with no chance. Wow.

Where has it all gone wrong for West Brom? After taking the lead and sending the home fans wild, they find themselves behind with 45 minutes to play. Crazy first half at The Hawthorns.

The home fans won't be happy if it stays like this. They booed after the defeat to Arsenal, but another loss, under these circumstances, might prompt riots. They'll be furious if they lose this. Rightly so.

I should point out that this is not the only game with goals galore. There's plenty of other games on today and they've been anything but quiet so far. Click here for a quick look at what's going on elsewhere and meet me back here very soon for the second half of this one.

RESTART: Aaaaaaaand we're back underway at The Hawthorns. Can West Brom get back into this? They have to really.

West Ham look to have maintained that momentum from late in the first half. They're well on top here.

SHOT! Berahino registers the first shot of the half, but it's a shocker. He was leaning back on the edge of the area, and it literally might've flown out of the stadium. He's been terrible tonight, so bad that we should breathlyse him. #topical

CHANCE! Oh what a good chance this is to equalise. Dawson, who opened the scoring, has a fine chance to level up the scoring but he drags a half volley wide of the mark from Lescott's knock-down header. Poor.

It's been much better from West Brom since the break overall. They've started the half as well as they started the last one, and they scored within 10 minutes in that half so they'll hope history repeats itself.

Berahino, in particular, has been much better in this half. He's been taken of the left, where he should never have been in the first place, and playing alongside Anichebe now.

There's half an hour left in this one and West Brom do actually look like scoring. The trouble is that you're not entirely convinced that they'll also be able to keep West Ham out. It's a close game this.

SHOT! This is a fine save by Adrian. His first save, really. Anichebe rounds Winston Reid and fires a hopeful left-footed at goal, but it's fiercely struck and Adrian shows a really strong wrist to keep it out.

DOUBLE SUBSTITUTION: Andy Carroll and Morgan Amalfitano make way for Enner Valencia and James Collins. Silvestre Varela, meanwhile, comes on for West Brom to make his Premier League debut, replacing the ineffective Craig Gardner.

It's going to be a very decent end to this game, with both sides looking like scoring to be honest.

They're having a really, really hard time trying to get back into this one. West Ham, with that extra defender back there remember, are comfortably repelling everything that comes their way so far.

BOOKING: Stephane Sessegnon goes into the book now for a foul on James Collins I think it was. It looked a bad tackle but he gets away with a yellow.

Right, we're into the final 14 minutes now and it's looking increasingly unlikely that the Baggies will grab an equaliser. They're still pressing and all, but it's hard to see.

West Ham bossing all the possession now it seems. Alan Irvine is standing on the sidelines cheerleading, doing everything he can to inspire his troops to what would be a quite a good point in the context.

SUBSTITUTION: Irvine plans on throwing the kitchen sink at West Ham for the final nine minutes, as striker Brown Ideye replaces Chris Baird. They've got five strikers on the field now!

SAVE! What a massive save from Adrian, whose feet deny Anichebe an equaliser. Dorrans then threw a half volley just wide. This is a HUGE last five minutes folks.

Sloppy from Cole, who plays Valencia in on goal but he's literally around 10 yards offside. They take an age to win the ball, and they give it straight back. Poor from Cole just then.

FOUR MINUTES ADDED ON: Huge four minutes for the Albion this. Can they nick a point? They deserve one in truth.

Ben Foster is playing left wing at the moment after staying up for a corner. Both goalkeepers might've had to actually go in for a 50-50, but Adrian's touch was too good for that extraordinary vision.

Unfortunately it appears as if time is rapidly running out.

That's it! West Ham hold on to inflict a fourth straight defeat on poor West Brom, who threw everything at the Hammers in their bid to force a second-half equaliser but didn't do enough in the end. I personally feel a bit sorry for them.

Anyways, that's all we've got time for, my friends. Stay tuned for reaction, analysis and player ratings and we'll see you tomorrow for another glut of Premier League games. Goodnight and god bless.