The Eagles head into Sunday with one win in their last six Premier League matches, but also having not lost in their last four visits to east London.
Speaking as part of a feature-length interview with Premier League Productions – which you can watch in full below – the Palace captain said: “First things first, it’s going to be a battle.
“It’ll be a slightly different game, with it being a London derby, but it’s going to be a hard-fought game. It always has been with us and West Ham.
“Last year we had some good results [2-1 and 4-3 wins] against them, and hopefully we can continue that on, go there and give a good account of ourselves, and turn the last two games around and get some momentum behind us.
“Sometimes your character shows when your back’s up against the wall and things aren’t easy. You’ve sometimes got to come out fighting – it’s how you respond to adversity that matters.
“There’s a desire to change it, so we need the momentum to kick on and go to where we can go to as a club. I can speak on behalf of the lads that they all want to do that as well.”