West Ham United midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate has urged his teammates to show some fighting spirit as they prepare for a battle against Bournemouth in the Premier League.

Slaven Bilic's charges have lost their last two league outings and have slipped back into the bottom half of the table, leaving the Senegalese captain to call on his side to get back to winning ways against Eddie Howe's men.

"Of course we do need the points at the moment, because in the last two games we dropped two points against Watford and we lost at home to Chelsea, although of course Chelsea are a fantastic side," Kouyate told the club's official website.

"Now, we have the Bournemouth game coming up and we will be going there to try and take all three points. It's a very important game, then we have Leicester the following week, so we'll be preparing for that game as well.

"We know that many teams go to Bournemouth and don't win, so we know it'll be tough, but we'll be battling as hard as we can to get the win."

The Hammers currently occupy 11th spot in the standings after 27 games played.