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Sam Allardyce admits the recent injuries suffered by number of his defenders has left him desperate for his attacking players to start finding the net.

Despite the Hammers currently boasting the fourth best defensive record in the Premier League so far this season, goals have been few and far between.

So with Winston Reid out for at least 10 weeks, James Collins, Razvan Rat and Joey O’Brien injured on international duty and George McCartney only just returning to match fitness, Allardyce’s has called on his attacking players to start scoring.

He told whufc.com: “The mainstay of our season so far has been our defence, especially away from home.

“It’s the mainstay of our game until we find more goals. It’s not the fact that we’re not creating chances – it’s the fact we are not converting chances often enough and the stats prove that.

“Our stats show we’re making as many chances as anybody else, but our failure rate is the highest, so we need to continue to try to improve that.”

But Allardyce will need an instant impact against Chelsea at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday and he is quietly confident that Jose Mourinho’s Blues are beatable due to their recent vulnerabilities.

“At the end of the day, we have to be on top of our game on Saturday,” he said.

“All the players who play and take part will have to hit top form, anything less than that will make life difficult for us. If we can do that, we can cause Chelsea one or two problems and ultimately prssure is fine and playing good football is fine, but scoring goals, converting chances and winning football matches is what we’re all paid to do.

“Creating chances will be at a premium, so we have to be clinical enough to take them when we get them. If we can do that, as Newcastle United showed a few weeks ago, we can frustrate Chelsea and win the game.

“That game there is a vulnerability there and, if your team masters its tactics, you can beat a team as big as Chelsea.”