Cullen In For Noble

Word coming out of West Ham is that Josh Cullen may well replace club captain Mark Noble for this evening's fixture against Arsenal at the Emirates, Noble has a toe injury which prevented him from playing in the 3-0 victory over Charlton in the EFL cup and meant he missed training.

Noble has apparently recovered from the toe injury, but he is still 'feeling' a bit sore and David Moyes has intimated that he might do 'something different' for the Arsenal game in order to put last weekend's dreadful display in the 2-0 defeat by Newcastle firmly in the past.

If Cullen starts Moyes might decide to 'flood' the midfield in order to stifle what is a fast and mobile Arsenal team that can punish the opposition with their pace, and to that purpose Moyes may also elect to play Authur Masuaku, possibly as a wing back, Masuaku is a rubbish full back, but he can maraud down the line causing defenders real problems with his blistering pace.

In Moyes' first spell at the London Stadium before he was unceremoniously dumped in favour of the 'inveterate spender' AKA the 'Pellegrinophile', the Hammers manager 'took' to 'King Authur', things went wrong though when Mauaku had his 'spitting fit' that earned him a six match ban. Disciplinarian Moyes didn't take too kindly to Masuaku's behaviour and on his return to the club Moyes has only used his once favourite very sparingly.

At one point Masuaku was a fan's favourite, but the spitting ban followed by a loss of confidence saw him sidelined, particularly after the Chilean Pellegrini took charge, Masuaku became a shadow of the player he once was, it will be interesting to see if Moyes decides to deploy Masuaku for his pace.

Cullen has pace, but he also has accuracy and a very cool head, neither of those qualities are shared by Masuaku, it is particularly Cullen's calmness that shows brightly, and he seems unfazed by the big occasion, of course it helps that the match will be played in a stadium without fans, it will help not only Cullen, but several others will benefit from the lack of a home crowd, it kind of levels things up.

As for the rest of the team, Moyes might actually play a striker with a winger either side of him, that strange phenomena of playing players in their correct positions, Sebastien Haller CAN score goals but is low on confidence having been made to play the lone striker role under Pellegrini, if he has close support from Antonio and one other he will put the ball in the onion bag, it is just a question of going back to basics, oh and also how insane is it to have the club's two most expensive signings sitting on the bench?

To many, the Arsenal game is a write off, so why not give it a go? - Ed