westhamfans.org

Manuel Pellegrini won the League Cup twice in three seasons at Manchester City in 2014 and 2016 and wants to help West Ham win the Cup that has for ever eluded them. Always the bridesmaid never the bride best descibes Hammers fortunes or lack of them as is the case in the League/Milk/Carabao Cup, Runners up in 1966, 1981 and semi finalists on two other occasions when the semi's were two legged, but always falling short. The 'Cara' cup represents one of the best chances for the club to gain honours and is a competition the Hammers Boss does not take lightly.

Hammers fans have known all about Declan Rice and his massive potential for ages, but now the news media scrum have suddenly opened their eyes to the potential that was clearly there to see for some considerable time.

Whirling rain and gale force winds had been predicted ahead of Hammers home tie against table toppers Chelsea at the London Stadium, the clouds looked even darker when the news that talisman Marko Arnoutovic wasn't even if the match day squad was announced! All conquering Chelsea with 15 points from their previous five games turned up having rested their three main players from the exertions of their Thursday night Europa League match, and from the off they had the home team on the back foot.

West Ham: Fabianski, Balbuena, Zabaleta, Diop, Masuaku, Rice, Obiang, Noble, Yarmolenko, Anderson, Antonio. Subs: Adrian, Cresswell, Snodgrass, Sanchez, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Perez.
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Rudiger, Alonso, Luiz, Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Willian, Hazard, Giroud. Subs: Caballero, Fabregas, Barkley, Moses, Zappacosta, Cahill, Morata.

Much has been made of Chelsea's disrupted travel plans following their victory in Greece in the europa League cup, they were scheduled to fly out on Thursday night but were unable to leave due to bad weather until Friday lunchtime, however main men Eden Hazard and David Luiz had stayed back in England in order to be 'rested' ahead of the forthcoming live on Sky match against West Ham at The London Stadium on Sunday.

In his column for the Evening Standard* West Ham captain Mark Noble was overjoyed with last weekend's result against Everton but was also wary of reading too much in to one victory, however he did manage a bit of politicising by less than subtley mentioning how well the midfield, which of course included him, had performed during the match.

Hammer's Talisman Marko Arnoutovic will be available for the home game against Chelsea this coming Sunday although he may be on the bench initially, there had been fears that the pain Arnoutovic felt behind his knee could be serious but scans have revealed a mild inflamation as opposed to a core issue, this is good news indeed because whenever Arnie is not playing the team look bereft of any cutting edge, it is notable how poor performances have been without his services.

It was perhaps inevitable sooner rather than later, and in this case much sooner, that having signed a lucrative THREE year deal to join West Ham Jack Wilshere would pick up an ankle injury that has had to be operated on. The injury will keep the 26 year old midfielder out of action for between 6 - 12 weeks, although it was a relatively minor ankle surgery, Wilshere's recovery up to match fitness could take considerably longer..

Buoyant from a much needed away win against 'serial offenders' Everton, under fire Hammers manager Manuel Pellegrini was forced to divert from his attacking concept post match eulogy in order to 'deal' with the 'Sky rumoured' spat that he was supposed to have had with Lucas Perez.

Crisis, what crisis? Manuel Pellegrini looked like the cat that got the cream as he oversaw his team's 3-1 victory at Goodison Park away to Everton, although we used a feline reference, Manuel Pellegrini is much more reptilian, his eyes are very similar to those of Slaven Billic's, and wierdly their reptilian personna extends to their other facial features, at any time during an interview one expects an unsuspecting fly to be quickly consumed by a lighting 'tongue action', a certain Mr Harry would have a field day with that one!