Gianfranco Zola has vowed to fight with everything he can to help West Ham avoid relegation from the Premier League this season. The Italian manager replaced Alan Curbishley during last season and now sees his side sitting only one place above the bottom three on 18 points. Zola is preparing to take his side to the Midlands for a match against sixth-placed Aston Villa before facing a crunch relegation six-pointer against bottom club Portsmouth on Tuesday. He has admitted the job at Upton Park has proved to be tougher than he first expected but vowed to push both himself and the West Ham players to fight against the drop in the coming months. “In this job, there are so many things that you need to look after and be good at. Sometimes I have doubted the tactical side, sometimes the psychology,” said Zola. “If we get through we will better players and managers. What can I do? I'm not going to bang my head against the wall because of that. I am going to fight.” He is working on all aspects of management to ensure he can be a top boss in order to get “better and better” at the job, added the former Chelsea star. Zola has mounting problems ahead of the trip to Villa as an injury to Guillermo Franco means he has no fit senior strikers available and could have to hand a first Premier League start this season to Freddie Sears – who recently returned from a loan spell at Crystal Palace.