In-form Hamburger SV aim to further improve their league position with the win over Stuttgart, with the Swabians desperate to escape the danger zone after taking just 6 points from first 7 games.

Despite the heavy investment in both playing and coaching squad, HSV have been struggling to fulfill their potential over the last few years, but that finally looks set to change.

Even if the club stayed without several important players in the summer, they did extremely well to replace them with Rafa van der Vaart, Rene Adler, Petr Jiracek, Milan Badelj and Artoms Rudnevs.

New players obviously needed some time to adapt to the new surroundings, which can be considered an excuse for the three starting defeats, but the most important thing is everything soon fell into place.

Boosted by the return of Rafa van der Vaart, HSV went on to take 10 points from next 4 league games, so they now look a good bet to beat Stuttgart at odds of 2.25 (5/4) offered by Stan James.

The good news is that both Rafael van der Vaart and Milan Badelj have resumed full training, meaning that boss Thorsteb Fink can field his strongest line-up.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Adler – Diekmeier, Mancienne, Westermann, Jansen – Badelj, Arslan – Son, Van der Vaart, Jiracek – Rudnevs.

Stuttgart did well to finish the previous league campaign in 6th place, but the squad were severely weakened in off season.

While Khalid Boulahrouz, Matthieu Delpierre, Julian Schieber, Timo Gebhart and Stefano Celozzi all left, Tunay Torun was the only notable player who joined the club.

Taking this into account, nobody was surprised to see the Swabians struggle at the start of the league campaign, and the reality is they are now just one point above the relegation zone.

Bruno Labbadia’s side now face a difficult task against high-flying Hamburg, but having scored five goals in first three away games, Stuttgart are 1.30 (3/10) with Ladbrokes to continue the good run.

Striker Cacau has joined the lengthy injury list that already contained the likes of Johan Audel, Daniel Didavi and Tim Hoogland.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-2-1): Ulreich – G. Sakai, Tasci, Niedermeier, Boka – Genter, Kvist, Holzhauser – Harnik Traore – Ibisevic.