Nottingham Forest find themselves in the thick of the relegation dogfight as they welcome bottom side Wolverhampton Wanderers to the City Ground on Wednesday.
Forest lie 17th, just one place above the drop zone, but West Ham's upturn in fortunes has seen them narrow the gap to just two points - aand would have drawn level but for conceding a last-gasp equaliser to draw with Manchester United on Tuesday.
Sean Dyche's men, therefore, will be desperate to establish some breathing space in the league table when they face a Wolves side with just one league win all season.
A decision for Dyche
The high point of a disappointing 3-1 defeat by Leeds United on Friday was a debut goal for on-loan striker Lorenzo Lucca, just 32 minutes into his Forest career. A solid display as a substitute at Elland Road saw the 6ft 7in Italian make a reasonable case to start this meeting between two of the league's three lowest-scoring sides.
With Chris Wood out injured, it speaks volumes that the Reds' top scorer in the league this season is midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White with just six. One more against his former club will take the England international joint-second in Forest's all-time Premier League goalscoring list, behind the aforementioned Wood.
It's a fixture in which Forest have struggled in recent times, with no wins in their past nine home games against Wolves (drawn five, lost four). They are, however, unbeaten in their last three at the City Ground, with draws either side of a thumping 4-0 Europa League win over Ferencvaros.
Wanderers winless on the road
The prospect of three points away from Molineux seems fanciful for a Wolves side winless in their past 14 Premier League away games (drawn three, lost 11), including all 12 this season.
It's their longest run without a victory on their travels in the top flight since the 2003-04 campaign, when they failed to win any of their 19 and were duly relegated after finishing bottom on goals scored.
In that season, Wolves accrued 33 points, a tally that already feels out of reach for Rob Edwards' side, who are winless in five after that solitary league victory over West Ham on 3 January.
The Old Gold have just eight points on the board this season, the lowest tally after 25 games in the competition's history. Although relegation now seems a formality, they will surely want to surpass Derby County's total of 11 points in the 2007-08 season and avoid being known as mathematically the worst team in the Premier League era.
Wolves lack a predator
A dire defensive record of just two clean sheets in the league all season has been compounded by an inability to find the net. Tolu Arokodare's consolation in the 3-1 loss to Chelsea last week means they now have five players tied as their top league goalscorer on two apiece.
Wolves' shot conversion rate of 6.8% (from 236 efforts) is the worst in the league, with Forest next on 8.4% (from 298 attempts), a damning indictment of both sides' failing forward lines.
