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Craig Dawson's elevation to first team starter came as a complete surprise to most fans who were underwhelmed at best by his arrival from relegated Watford on loan, known as the 'Relegator', Dawson had previously played for and got relegated with this evening's visitors to the London Stadium, West Brom, who he left to join Watford following the Baggies relegation!

Dawson has defied logic and slotted in as part of defence that has been tighter than a Duck's proverbial to breach, West Ham have not conceded a goal in four games since Dawson came into the team three weeks ago as a result of mainstay Fabian Balbuena's unavailability due to Covid, and he has impressed alongside Angelo Ogbonna at the heart of the defence.

Recent results against Southampton, Everton and Burnley have helped lift West Ham to within five points of the top four ahead of this evening's game, the club looked to have saved a basket load of money by going for Dawson as opposed to Burnley's James Tarkowski, the Clarets rejected a £30 Million bid from the Irons for the England Centre back in the Summer.

Activating the option to make Dawson's loan move permanent would cost around £2 Million, that action had been meant to happen in the summer but, if Dawson’s fine displays continue, it may be brought forward to this month if the Hammers need to free up a loan spot in the squad.
If Dawson IS signed on a permanent basis, his arrival will almost definitely signal the departure of the long serving Winston Reid who has now returned to the club following his loan spell in America. Reid still has two years left on his £70,000 per week contract and as such will prove rather difficult to move on unless the club supplement his wages. It's a real shame, because prior to his freak injury sustained nearly three years ago he was one of the first names on the team sheet, unfortunately it is highly unlikely that the Kiwi's national captain will not have enough 'zip' about him to be included in the 'Moyes Love Machine'.

In a similar way to Mark Noble, Reid's time has come and gone, at least he was rewarded admirably for his services, unlike many players before him. In a way it is testimony as to how far David Moyes has taken the club in what has essentially been very little time, that players of Noble and Reid's ilk are not part of the programme, now if they were both in their twenties that would be a different story, but time waits for no man, even warriors like Reid and Noble. - Ed

One by one little records are being broken by a West Ham side that has been rejeuvinated by a rejeuvinated David Moyes. The Hammers manager looks like an entirely different person now from the cadava like image of 'ghostliness' that first turned up at the London Stadium, the 57 year old Scot has the air about him of someone who knows exactly what he is trying to achieve and precisely where he is trying to take his players.

Having benefitted from the remarkable performances of new arrivals Tomas Soucek, Vladimir Coufal, Jarrod Bowen and more recently Said Benrahma, Moyes is pushing on with trying to build the team according to a similar blue print to that he used when he managed and sustained Everton on a shoe stringed budget.

Apart from inspired recruitment, one of the key areas Moyes has worked on is 'team ethic', where no one is bigger than the rest of the team and everyone works for each other, it is therefore unsurprising to see the 'zip' in the team's step following the departure of 'Le Sulk' to Ajax. It is as if lead has been removed from the player's boots, as everyone seems at least a yard faster, there is a genuine buzz about the team's potential that is founded on a solid defence that belies the flaky hammers moniker.

Team spirit is what Moyes has been trying to invoke, and it looks as if he has achieved just that judging by the affection there is among the squad, there are no bad apples! It seems quite extraordinary to consider that less than one year ago the squad included Jack Wilshere, Sebastien Haller and of course Roberto!

Next up is the visit of Big Sam's Baggies, he will be doing his upmost to put one over on David Moyes and will have prepped his team accordingly, however at the Org we were discussing what 'insider' knowledge Allardyce would have at his disposal, how many players would he know properly?

The answer is NOT many, of the current first team, only Aaron Cresswell has played under Sam and as such the Baggies manager will be relying on 'agent' Snodgrass to give him the inside info, and you can probably bet your house on the very likeable Scot scoring against his former club.

The games come thick and fast from now on, with challenging games against Doncaster in the FA Cup on Saturday swiftly followed by the Barclays Premier League fixture away to Palace only three days later, but judging by our NOT socially distanced image, the team are United, they are 'The Better United'. - Ed

West Ham: Fabiański, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals, Antonio Subs: Randolph (GK), Fredericks, Johnson, Alves, Diop, Noble, Lanzini, Yarmolenko, Odubeko
Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee (c), Pieters, Gudmundsson, Westwood, Brownhill, Brady, Wood, Barnes Subs: Norris (GK), Cork, McNeil, Stephens, Rodriguez, Bardsley, Vydra, Long, Benson