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Hammers go into the business end of the season with all their hopes and aspirations now pinned on the UEFA Europa League Cup, qualification for Europe via League position is now virtually academic given the club's inability to capitalise on other clubs poor results.

There was a general feeling that Hammers would find it very difficult to emulate Thursday evening's massive performance, and so it proved. Burnley arrived with a game plan that very nearly worked, however but for the visitors goalkeeper Hammers could and should have run away with the game.

West Ham: Fabianski, Johnson, Dawson, Diop, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice ©, Bowen, Lanzini, Vlasic, Antonio. Subs: Areola (GK), Coufal, Fredericks, Masuaku, Noble, Kral, Fornals, Benrahma, Yarmolenko.
Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Collins, Tarkowski ©, Taylor, McNeil, Westwood, Cork, Cornet, Rodriguez, Weghorst. Subs: Hennessey(GK), Roberts, Long, Bardsley, Brownhill, Stephens, Lennon, Barnes, Vydra.

The opponents at Stratford for this afternoon's Premier League fixture arrive sans gravel voiced Sean Dyche, because the club's new owners inexplicably decided to axe the man who has kept them punching above their weight for the last 8 years on a total operating player spend of only £24 Million!

After all the shenanigans from the cheat from hell of last week commited by Felix Swayer, fans were hoping for a less biased referee for Hammers crucial game against Lyon, boy did they get one. The home side attempted to con the referee from the off, just as they had done last week in London, however this Ref was NOT for turning or being manipulated.

Lyon: Pollersback, Gusto, Denayer, Lukeba, Emerson, Mendes, Faivre, Toko Ekambi, Aouar, Ndombélé, Dembélé © Subs: M.Barcola (GK), Bonnevie (GK), Lucas Paqueta, Kadewere, Henrique, Dubois, Keïta, Tetê, Da Silva, Reine-Adélaïde, B.Barcola, Boateng
West Ham: Areola, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Johnson, Rice ©, Souček, Bowen, Lanzini, Fornals, Antonio Subs: Fabiański (GK), Randolph (GK), Fredericks, Alese, Masuaku, Noble, Král, Chesters, Vlašić, Benrahma, Yarmolenko, Perkins

There has been SO much media focus on how difficult a task West Ham face for this evening's quarter-final 2nd leg of the UEFA Europa League Cup against Lyon, that you could assume the club hardly need to travel to the Rhone region of France for the fixture because the home team have all but won it already!

Contrary to some information being negatively spread on the Internet, Declan Rice will NOT be suspended for the Europa League Cup semi-final should Hammers beat Lyon on Thursday evening's quarter-final. Decs had to play a disciplinary tight rope during the first leg in Stratford last week, fearing another booking would see him miss this Thursday's fixture, but according to UEFA rules, yellow cards that are outstanding are written off after the quarter final.

The vultures are circling, looking at what they consider to be lesser teams to see what talent they can prise away. Once the season ends, the noise around West Ham's most talented players is likely to become unbearable as the lack of football to report on inevitably results in endless transfer speculation and rumours. Rather than lament the state of football journalism or wallow in grief at the potential loss of Rice or Bowen, let's see what clubs have done in the past to hold on to their most talented and in-demand players.