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Blow Out! Exhaustion And Injury Update From West Ham

nevillenixon's picture
Submitted by nevillenixon on Fri, 15/12/2017 - 08:43

West Ham United's Kiwi warrior Winston Reid is suspended for the upcoming game away to Mark Hughes' Stoke City side having picked up his 5th yellow card for the season during the combative draw against Arsenal at the London Stadium. With Peter Crouch likely to feature Reid's ability to keep attackers in his pocket will surely be missed, however the Ginger Pele James Collins is available as is Declan Rice, both good centre backs, Rice has pace whereas 'Ginge' has experience. The latter made a cameo warm up appearance against the Gooners but was eventually not called upon, the weather for Saturdays fixture at the Bet 365 Stadium is forecast to be freezing with a significant risk of ice and snow so perhaps Moyes and Psycho might show their 'soft side' by not wanting to risk 'Ginge' on account of his head being so shiny it might get mistaken for the ball!

The rest of the team will need to re-charge their batteries ahead of what will be a gruelling match against opponents who are in a similarly desperate fight to avoid relegation from the top flight. Stoke City have endured a horrendous run of recent results so they will throw everything they can at visiting West Ham, there is the added spice of 'Elbows' Arnoutovic returning to the club that he acrimoniously left in order to get his £24 Million transfer to the London Stadium. David Moyes will need to keep a eye on him, so will whoever is Captain that day in order to ensure the Stoke players and their fans don't manage to wind up' their ex-talisman, Arnoutovic himself must understand what will happen, although given the fact that he didn't know that he would be booked for jumping in to the crowd to celebrate scoring his first Premier League goal, it is not to be taken for granted that he takes things on board that well.
Antonio is currently being sacrificed for the good of the team, that said his inability to run at the end of the game against Chelsea and against Arsenal meant that there was little chance of a quick break away goal at the end of the match. David Moyes was trying to get Hernandez on for a good few minutes before he did and the ball just wouldn't go out of play, everyone knows the impact 'Chicarito' had when he did eventually get on the pitch, his finely taken shot cannoned off the cross bar and nearly gave Hammers a spectacular last minute winner! Perhaps Moyes and Psycho need to learn big Mick's cut off point before he 'blows a gasket', it's not as if there weren't plenty of 'experienced' players on the bench. Andre Ayew, Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho were all available to be called on as well as 'Chico', getting the balance right will be difficult but not impossible against the so called 'lesser' clubs because they are the ones that HAVE to be beaten if West Ham are to avoid the drop, as David Moyes said in his post match comments against Arsenal "any thought of anything other than survival would be a distraction, we're in a battle but I believe it is one that we can and will win!"

The hard work begins again on Saturday and fans will be wondering how much of a toll the exertions of recent fixtures will take, with the exception of the suspended Reid, Moyes would probably like to put the same team out that has served him so well of late, the obvious train of thought being "if it ain't broke don't fix it", but exhaustion has no friends and there are already one or two players 'running on empty'!

Which ever selection of players ends up starting the match, they will need to be on their physical and proverbial toes in order to counter the inevitable onslaught from the home team, and as it's Christmas West Ham will be providing the pantomime villain for the crowd in the form of 'Elbow's Arnoutovic.....Look behind you! - Ed

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moore 6 legend's picture

Moyes, has just got wind of the rest between games for our lot, and said he's having none of that malarkey,so the team will be jogging to stoke,a few hours before the game.

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