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News coming out of Hammers 'Goose Green' training ground yesterday is that veteran Angelo Ogbonna is being 'fast tracked' back from his ACL injury in order to provide emergency cover for the Premier League game against Chelsea AND more importantly, the UEFA Europa League semi final 1st leg against Eintrecht Frankfurt at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium.

Kurt Zouma may have kicked a cat recently for which he has been sanctioned and profusely apologised for his 'stupid' actions, but the rest of the defence must feel as if they have run cats over given the back line's appalling injury status. The news that Isssa Diop is out for the rest of the season with an Achilles injury has only added to the burden now faced by the club ahead of it's most crucial week for 40 years

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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!