West Ham: Adrian, Cresswell, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Sanchez, Obiang, Diop, Diangana, Snodgrass, Perez, Antonio. Subs: Fabianski, Balbuena, Yarmolenko, Rice, Masuaku, Coventry, Powell.
Macclesfield: Ohara, Fitzpatrick, Lowe, Kellerher, Grimes, Marsh, Smith, Napa, Maycock, Pearson, Whitaker. Subs: Simpson, Hodgkiss, Wilson, Blisset, Welch-Hayes, Vincenti, Arthur.
Manuel Pellegrini won the League Cup twice in three seasons at Manchester City in 2014 and 2016 and wants to help West Ham win the Cup that has for ever eluded them. Always the bridesmaid never the bride best descibes Hammers fortunes or lack of them as is the case in the League/Milk/Carabao Cup, Runners up in 1966, 1981 and semi finalists on two other occasions when the semi's were two legged, but always falling short. The 'Cara' cup represents one of the best chances for the club to gain honours and is a competition the Hammers Boss does not take lightly.
Pellegrini told the official WHUFC.Com site "Our ambition is clear, to take the competition very seriously and progress as far as we possibly can. This is a competition that has many good memories for me, It was the first title I won in English football, as manager of Manchester City in 2014. It is a very important competition – the first major trophy that can be won in the season – and the experience of winning at Wembley in front of your supporters is something that stays with you forever. I know it is a trophy that West Ham United have not yet won in our history and, of course, we would like that to change, but first we must concentrate on showing the right approach against Macclesfield. In the last round at AFC Wimbledon, we went a goal down early on and had to show patience and belief in order to get back into the game and eventually come out on top,”
Pellegrini went on to mention that he will give opportunities to his fringe players. “We know that we may have to show the same qualities again this evening against a team who will be very motivated and eager to make a big impression. However, I have every confidence that we will be in the right frame of mind. This fixture will give us the opportunity to utilise our squad and bring in players who have not had as many minutes in the Premier League recently, and I am sure they will be hungry to do well. We are also looking forward to another good atmosphere at London Stadium, the support for the team on Sunday was magnificent, and I hope that everyone at the game enjoys a memorable evening."
Having 'talked the talk' the reality is not who will play, but who won't be playing. Despite returning to light training Marko Arnautovic will not be risked neither will Antonio who still looks exhausted after every match which opens the door for Javier Hernandez who should return after a bout of flu and Lucas Perez who has had hardly any game time since arriving at the club. Carlos Sanchez, Aaron Cresswell and Adrian are logical choices for the starting line up as is Ryan Fredericks and Angelo Ogbonna. Whether El Pel decides to use Mark Noble in the midfield is a matter of some conjecture given the club captain's exertions during the hard fought draw against Chelsea on Sunday, Rice and Diop on the other hand have energy to burn so it is likely they will both feature. Yarmolenko could well feature but Anderson will only be on the bench and will not play unless the match situation dictates otherwise, Pellegrini's 'scottish love child' Robert Snodgrass will definitely start and may well be handed the captain's arm band if Mark Noble doesn't play.
So as we it the starting eleven against Macclesfield will be : Adrian, Cresswell, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Sanchez, Diop, Rice, Yarmolenko, Snodgrass, Perez, Hernandez. Subs: Fabianski, Balbuena, Noble, Anderson, Zabaleta, Antonio, Masuaku.
Like to see Adriane in goal and use him the way we used Randolph otherwise I can see Adriane getting the hump and leaving in January. Think he will rest Zabba and give Fredricks a bit of playing time not to sure about Lucas Perez looked a bit lightweight against Chelsea. With all the Lower leauge matches I'm always worried that a player like Anderson could get injured and be out for the rest of the season they don't back out on the 50-50 balls. Disapointed that Silva has done his Hamstring and is out for 4 weeks I would Have liked to see him play after his hat trick against Spurs. Don't think there will be any banana skins their bottom of division 2, but you never Know We are WHU get 4 points against Everton and Chelsea and lose against Macclesfield.
Hammers fans have known all about Declan Rice and his massive potential for ages, but now the news media scrum have suddenly opened their eyes to the potential that was clearly there to see for some considerable time. Unfortunately all this attention comes at a time in the young man's life when his services are at the centre of an 'International squabble' between The Republic of Ireland and England and also amid renewed contract negotiations between the player's agents and the club with regards to improved terms to his contract that still has a little under two years to run if the club take up their options.
Maybe it is because it has been a relatively quiet 'news' week, but the clamour for all things Declan Rice has been astonishing, whether by the BBC or a host of other espected news outlets, it is indeed fortunate that he has a strong family support mechanism behind him and is extremely unlikely to do a 'Reece oxford' having been presented with the chance to move on and become a West Ham legend and possibly future captain in waiting.
There is plenty of time to negotiate a mutually convenient negotiation between Rice and the club regarding his future, some of the figures being banded around are incorrect and poorly researched by certain Journalists and others. Declan Rice is defintely not on £3,000 per week, Leo Chambers, now playing for Billericay was on that wage four years ago!
Everyone loves 'one of their own' to do well, how do Chelsea fans feel about 'The One That Got Away'. - Ed
What a keeper this guy is. I was not excited by his signing but i have to say whoever signed him, the board or Pellegrini - damn good job, this man is mustard.
Whirling rain and gale force winds had been predicted ahead of Hammers home tie against table toppers Chelsea at the London Stadium, the clouds looked even darker when the news that talisman Marko Arnoutovic wasn't even if the match day squad was announced! All conquering Chelsea with 15 points from their previous five games turned up having rested their three main players from the exertions of their Thursday night Europa League match, and from the off they had the home team on the back foot.
On final analysis statistically the visitors 'monstered' possesion by a percentage, but the stats don't tell the whole story at all. Those who questioned whether Manuel Pellegrini was capable of adapting his tactics were proved indefatigabley incorrect as West Ham United set out their stall perefectly in order to deal withe the 'Hazard' of the Chelsea front line, it wasn't parking the bus, it was more manoeuvering the Lambreta as the defence and midfield stood firm against all the visitors could throw at them. This is not to say Hammers were just there to make up the numbers, far from it, in fact had it not been for the profligacy of Michail Antonio, who by his own admission should have scored a brace, and Yarmolenko in the latter stages of the game who spurned a 'couldn't miss' opportunity to give his team the three points that by and large they deserved.
The importance of last weekends' victory over Everton cannot be more clearly manifested than by the fact that Chelsea had to play a TEAM that had discoverd it's identity, personel will come and go and formations might change but the team ethos has been born, it took four games for the team to gell, and gell they have. Part of the new found identity is the trust placed on Declan Rice's young shoulders, a burden he carries with aplomb, he was aided and abetted in midfield by Pedro Obiang and Mark Noble who must have changed his Duracells.
The whole team performed with confidence despite ceeding so much of the ball, the point is Chelsea were playing in areas that they were allowed to, on more than one occasion they were forced in to mistakes that made them look second rate whereas it was actually the never say die attitude of the home team that made them look that way. There are many who will rue the absence of Marko Arnoutovic in this match as he would more than likely have buried one if not two of the chances presented to Antonio, but Arnie has a chance to recover from his knock and the team got a very valuable big point, big because not only was it attained against the league leaders, but it maintained the positive momentum from the victory over Everton.
Pellegrini's post match comments included “They had a lot of possession because we allowed them to have the ball, we forced them to play most of the game from the right side, not the left side where Marcos Alonso and Hazard are so dangerous. The first half was very clear the way I wanted to play, the second we maybe lost too many balls but against these teams, a draw is not a bad point.”
Most fans would have been happy if offered a point before the game even if Arnoutovic had been pronounced fit, but most of them will be feeling a little disappointed after the match that there was only one point gained instead of three, was it one point gained or two points lost? Maybe ask a Chelsea fan, Oh and the sun eventually shone brightly on a day of predicted darkness! - Ed
West Ham: Fabianski, Balbuena, Zabaleta, Diop, Masuaku, Rice, Obiang, Noble, Yarmolenko, Anderson, Antonio. Subs: Adrian, Cresswell, Snodgrass, Sanchez, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Perez.
Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Rudiger, Alonso, Luiz, Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic, Willian, Hazard, Giroud. Subs: Caballero, Fabregas, Barkley, Moses, Zappacosta, Cahill, Morata.
Well well well it would seem certain managers Pep/Poch/Mourino have started to speak out about so called players being tired and have said it is nonsense have they like supporters finally heard enough of this nonsense from players?.
Like many other fans we always say that they are trained all week and should be fit enough to play twice a week if not some of them have serious medical problems! but now that there bosses are speaking out about it I wonder how these overpaid show ponies will react
Much has been made of Chelsea's disrupted travel plans following their victory in Greece in the europa League cup, they were scheduled to fly out on Thursday night but were unable to leave due to bad weather until Friday lunchtime, however main men Eden Hazard and David Luiz had stayed back in England in order to be 'rested' ahead of the forthcoming live on Sky match against West Ham at The London Stadium on Sunday.
The fact that the game will be played barely 60 hours after their europa cup match would seem to put Chelsea at a disadvantage and their manager has mae much mention of it in his pre-match comments, however Chelsea are top of the pile with five wins out of five and have a squad that is well capable of 'filling in' for tired players as and when required.
The 'early doors' 1:30 PM kick off, while giving the visitors very little recovery time from their European endeavours, is not an ideal one for the home side as historically Hammers best performances against London rivals have been under the lights when for fleeting moments the 'Ironic' London Stadium has resembled the much beloved but now consigned to the memories Boleyn Ground.
Will the game being televised as well as the match being an early kick off effect the atmosphere? Probably Yes, a good many people, mindful of the possibility of seeing their team get 'tonked' allied to the horrendous weather conditions forecast for the afternoon, may well elect to view the proceedings in the warmth and comfoert of their homes and pretend to charge themselves ridiculous amounts of money for a packet of crisps or a pint!
Unfortunately given how dire most fans experiences have been of the london Stadium, whether they have been the poor performances on show or how sterile the venue itself is, it is going to take a while before the atmosphere can become intimidating for the opposition on a regular basis. Success breeds success and their is nothing that engenders that feeling more than winning, victory against bogey team Everton last weekend was a start, but it was only just the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end. - Ed
In his column for the Evening Standard* West Ham captain Mark Noble was overjoyed with last weekend's result against Everton but was also wary of reading too much in to one victory, however he did manage a bit of politicising by less than subtley mentioning how well the midfield, which of course included him, had performed during the match.
"Our manager made some changes for Sunday’s game and it worked well. I felt we had a real firm base in midfield with myself, Pedro Obiang and Declan Rice. We knew our jobs." This thinly veiled criticism of the previous midfied partnerships infers that they did NOT know their jobs! Hammers' longest serving player by a country mile has had his quality and abilities questioned on a regular basis, particularly last season and this, however he has 'seen off' a procession of managers who have dropped him at various times only for him to be recalled to the ranks in times of crisis. Noble continued by writing, On Sunday I went into the changing room at Goodison Park after our 3-1 win and just said: “Put the music on!” This was in complete contrast to the preceeding week where "a few home truths were exchanged" in the dressing room after the loss to Wolves
Mark Noble's 'legs', if not gone, are definitely on the way out, but what he lacks in pace he more than compensates for with the commiment and passion for the club he shows, futhermore with the right 'players with energy' around him his lack of speed matters much less. In the past teams have been able to exploit the lack of not just Noble's pace but essentially the entire midfield, moving Obiang and the excellent Declan Rice in to the middle of the Park gives the team a spine that has been lacking.
Eventually Noble will have to be replaced and the club are fortunate to have a couple of potential suitors on board already, Diop and Rice are both young and have incredible futures ahead of them, they are ideal Captain material as they both play in defence/midfield which is where a captain should be, especially when taking in to account the 'captain talking to the Ref rule' that is supposed to be one to one with the Ref to 'argue' the point on behalf of the team. If the Captain is a forward or a Goal Keeper it is far more difficult for them to cover the distance to the Ref than a player in the middle.
For the time being the club need Mark Noble more than ever, however that will not stop fans being on his back from word go if he displays an errant pass or picks up his usual unnecessary yellow card. On reflection it was always going to need a player with 'Claret and Blue in their veins to help intergrate so many new faces in to the team, and with hindsight dropping Noble early on in the season may have been what many fans, including this site, wanted but was not the correct course of action.
Ironically once the team have 'gelled' and are able to kick on a bit, Mark Noble will find his position in the starting line up under pressure again, it must be like ground hog day for him but eventually the day will come for this 'amiable' man to hang up his boots, It won't be for a while yet though. - Ed
* It should be remembered that all payments for articles 'written' for the Standard are donated to the charity of the player or as it once was the manager's choice.
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