Forum | Non-Football Related

Little Old West Ham travelled up to play League Champions Manchester City and got beaten, no surprise in that, but the fact that a club with such slender resources could be beaten by the same score line as that of mega rich PSG, is testament to just how far Hammers have come under the management and of Moyes.

With the first half played in blizzard conditions for about 20 minutes, the game was in danger of being called off, thankfully it wasn't, the last thing Moyes wanted was to have to add yet another fixture to what is an already ludicrously busy schedule. Beating City in their own back yard or even getting a draw was always a big ask, Hammers gave it a go but ultimately failed, had the game had to be replayed the outcome would probably have been the same, possibly a lot worse.

The point is Hammers didn't get gubbed and held their own as much as was possible in difficult circumstances, the focus has to quickly shift towards Wednesday evening's home game against Brighton, ahead of the game against Chelsea on Saturday lunchtime.

What is a matter of some concern are the injuries picked up by Said Benrahma AND Aaron Cresswell, the latter clattering his back into the goal post at some considerable speed. Benrahma picked up a nasty looking ankle injury which he was unable to run off despite trying, it is to be hoped his substitution was precautionary rather than totally necessary.

The fixtures come thick and fast from now on and will stretch the squad to the limit, the 2-1 loss to City whilst anticipated is still grating, however with games every three days it is possible to 'bury' today's result if points are picked up elsewhere.

IF Cresswell and Benrahma haven't picked up long term injuries then, the journey up to Manchester can be looked upon as damage limitation, there was also the small compensation of seeing Manu Lanzini's beautiful strike that flew past Ederson.- Ed

Hammers fans have grown accustomed to seeing David Moyes and his coaching staff prowling around the dug out during games including England set piece adviser Paul Nevin, he who is always speaking into a 'lip mic'. Ever wonder who on earth he is speaking to? Well none other than Psycho himself, Stuart Pearce. Around the time the Pandemic first made games crowdless, David Moyes tested positive and had to view the matches remotely, relying on his staff to keep him informed during the game.

To facilitate the missing manager desire for added info, it was decided that Stuart Pearce would view games from the 'rafters' in order to gain a more complete perspective, it worked so well that it is now the normal match day practice, a 'Psycho In The Sky'.

Pearce of course used to manage Man City and is well regarded at the Etihad still, he will do his upmost to get one over on his old club and part of that process is helping his manager choose the best players to get the job done, no matter how daunting the task.

As a defender himself Psycho knows all about the 'dark arts' and player nous required to succeed, does he prefer Craig Dawson or Issa Diop as the optioned new partner for Kurt Zouma in defence? We hear that he is slightly at odds with David Moyes on this topic. Moyes prefers Dawson as he sees him as more reliable and less likely to give the ball away than Diop, Pearce sees things the other way. The fearsome ex-England full back sees Diop as the future and has worked with him continuously in order to improve and advance his game.

At the end of the day the Boss always wins out with HIS opinion, but if Psycho 'verbals' in Moyes' ears long enough, he might just persuade him to choose Diop ahead of Dawson.

Our preferred team selection for City: Fabianski, Coufal, Zouma, Diop, Cresswell, Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Benrahma, Bowen, Antonio. What do you reckon? - LN

Hammers head up to Manchester to face City at the Etihad knowing full well that their hosts have been dismantling teams for fun of late, the daunting prospect having been made more acute due to Angelo Ogbonna being out with his ACL injury. It was plain to see that Kurt Zouma's display was compromised during the defeat against Wolves, as he was forced to play on the left as opposed to his preferred right in order to accommodate Craig Dawson, who is definitely NOT able to play on the left.

Dawson by his own standards was poor against Wolves, that said so were a lot of the team that day, but he is so right footed he HAS to play on the right or in the centre of a three. If David Moyes is only going to play two centre backs then logic dictates that he MUST play Issa Diop against City.

It should be remembered how well Diop and Dawson played against City in the Carabou Cup victory, they both played their part in keeping City at bay, but it was Diop, NOT Dawson who was the leader, the dominant force. Diop's athleticism could prove key against City, he may have a mistake in him but he brings the ball out of defence intelligently thus buying the team time to spring counter attacks.

Moyes could go for Dawson, Diop and Zouma as a back three but that might be risky, if he does actually select Diop and Zouma as a centre back pair instead of using Dawson, it would be a bit of a poisoned chalice for Issa, get a rare Premier League start, but it's against all conquering City at their place!

No one expects anything other than a loss for tomorrow's game, a draw if Hammers are incredibly lucky maybe, but the way the team plays is essential, irrespective of the size of the task. Hammers are going to come up against some pretty big fish as the UEFA Europa League Cup competition reaches is closing stages, so the players might as well get used to it! - Ed

The Africa Cup of Nations returns in January and looks set to leave a number of Premier League clubs short of key players, some more than others! The following list shows the downside of having too many AFCON players in a club's squad, the most severely hit would be Watford with FIVE players due to be jetting off after boxing day!

FIVE: Watford : FOUR: Arsenal, Leicester, Palace THREE: Brentford, Liverpool and Villa TWO: Chelsea, Everton, Man Utd and Southampton ONE: Brighton, Burnley, Man City and West Ham NONE: Leeds, Newcastle, Norwich and Tottingham

AFCON players could leave their club sides after the Boxing Day fixtures have been played, consequently players who advance through to the latter stages of the tournament could now be away from their teams for as long as six weeks, some players will not fly back until the second week of February. The competition is scheduled to start on January 9th, concluding just under a month later on February 6th.
Players were schedule to leave before or on Boxing Day for quarantining regulations, however, to paraphrase Clarkson "That's all 'aboot' to change!" The terrifying new Omicron variant of the Covid Pandemic has thrown all previous planning in to chaos, information is scant as to how quickly this new strain will spread and more importantly how much more dangerous, if at all, the new strain is.

We have access to one of the leading medical professors who has worked on finding Covid solutions from the very beginning, Jonathan Abel and he said it could take up to SIX weeks to properly identify the strain and adapt vaccines accordingly, the problem for AFCON being that there is an extremely low vaccination uptake in many African regions and as such the competition is in jeopardy of being cancelled.

This is a fast moving story and we will have further updates when 'substantiated' information becomes available. - LN