West Ham Utd 3-2 Chelsea (4/12/21)

[Shabu]

Early kick off against the league leaders.

Our overall record is won 42, lost 52, drawn 22 but it's much poorer in the Premier League era although we've perked up in the last 5 years with 5 losses, 4 wins & 3 draws. Plus a win in the League Cup.

Arsenal can overtake us tomorrow & Spurs can too if they win both their games in hand so if we want to stay ahead of our top six rivals we need at least a draw here.

There's a lot of thinking for Moyes. Does he stick with the team that did so well earlier or make use of the squid? Big ask against a team looking as good as Chelsea but there you go.

At 4.30am the game is too early for me so I will miss it meaning a 2-1 win for the Hammers

[wolf359]

Watford gave them a decent game and lost. We often step up when playing the best and maybe we will this weekend. Antonio owes us a performance, though Id be inclined the bench him.

[Morocco Mole]

I half fancy us. If they go with their functional midfield - which I think they will - we will out-function it.

Rudiger never fancies it against Mic and I think it’s fair to say he is due a proper barnstormer.

[wolf359]

Despite the ***** we have rolled out recently I fancy a point out of this one. A goal from a corner most likely. 1-1

[NWhammer]

Fabianksi

Coufal Dawson Zouma Cresswell

Soucek Rice

Lanzini

At this point i realised how poor our options are up front

[El brooko79]

Fabianksi

Coufal Dawson Zouma Cresswell

Soucek Rice

Lanzini

At this point i realised how poor our options are up front

Fornals Bowen Vlasic

[Georgee Paris]

Oh ffs.

[Collison Theory]

Early kick off against the league leaders.

Our overall record is won 42, lost 52, drawn 22 but it's much poorer in the Premier League era although we've perked up in the last 5 years with 5 losses, 4 wins & 3 draws. Plus a win in the League Cup.

Arsenal can overtake us tomorrow & Spurs can too if they win both their games in hand so if we want to stay ahead of our top six rivals we need at least a draw here.

There's a lot of thinking for Moyes. Does he stick with the team that did so well earlier or make use of the squid? Big ask against a team looking as good as Chelsea but there you go.

At 4.30am the game is too early for me so I will miss it meaning a 2-1 win for the Hammers

I knew we had a secret weapon! Squirt ink in Mendy's eyes! Wrap tentacles around Lukaku!

They're well drilled and organised (like us) but not with the attacking talent of City and Liverpool. We've got every chance.

[Ironing Board]

Think Benny will get dropped. Moyes seems to be running out of patience.

[Daytonahammer]

Manu in for Benny, however, I think his best work is in front of the back line. Let's get rice a more advanced role and maybe bring Pablo a little more central. Formals has not been super impressive lately but apart from Cressers he is the only other c*nt that can take a corner.

[hammerman11]

Fabianski
Coufal zouma diop Cresswell
Rice soucek lanzini
Vlasic bowen fornals

Subs Areola Johnson fredericks mauaka noble kral yarmolenko benrahma Antonio

Draw at best fear the worst !

[Garry]

We all know there should be changes but moyes doesn't

[One Peter Butler]

A very, very tough game awaits.

I think our biggest problem at the moment is we are not moving the ball quick enough. Carry on like that against this lot and we will get hurt - badly.

I would be delighted with a draw.

[lincolnhammer1963]

I think Antonio would be best suited coming on as a second half substitute.
Play Lanzini from the start.

Something has to change upfront .
It could have been Haller up front last nigt.Zero energy or threat from big Mich.

Get through this game and we have some winnable fixtures coming up.
Play against Zagreb with the kids if we have to.

We need our players to be ready to go again once saturday is out of the way

That sounds almost like I'm resigned to the inevitable on saturday.

So that's 1 0 to us then
We are massive
If a little less massive than we were 3 weeks ago

[funky chicken]

If Lanzini still doesn’t start ahead of Benrhama for this game then he has every right to be fuming with Moyes. As he made Moyes look a right c*nt last night when he came on. He showed more quality in the 15+ minutes than Benrhama did all game.

I’d go with:

———————————Fabianski———————————

-Coufal———-Dawson———-Zouma————Cresswell-

————————-Rice—————Soucek——————————-

———————————-Lanzini———————————————

-Vlasic———————-Bowen—————————-Fornals-


Subs: Areola, Johnson, Fredericks, Diop, Masuaku, Noble, Kral, Benrhama, Antonio.


If Cresswell is fit he comes straight back in. Otherwise stick with Johnson on the left, with Yarmolenko replacing him on the bench. Antonio to drop to the bench. But will hopefully cause some damage off the bench when he comes on, if he decides to show up. I know I am starting with Vlasic on the right. But during the game I want him, Lanzini and Bowen to keep moving around to different positions like they did against Rapid Wien. I thought the movement and understanding they all showed was quite promising.

[Morocco Mole]

I’d drop Bowen before Benny.

All three attacking mids need to up there game and none of them should be getting a pass. Here are some numbers:

——— Gls.—Assts —— KPs ——PSucc—- DSucc ——Disp
Benny—-6—— 3 ———- 1.2 ——- 82% ——- 1.7 ——- 0.8
Bowen—-3—— 5 ——— 1.1 ——— 76%———1.8 —-—1.3
Fornals—-4 ——2———-1.1 ———- 82% ——0.6——— 0.7

[Bubbles Fortuna]

This is our hardest game for a while, after this with the exception of Arsenal we play 6 bottom half sides in a row, including two who are in the relegation zone and the team just above it.

We're still equal on points with last season in terms of a result by result comparison, we have more points than this point last season, and we're still 4th.

Lets all take a deep breath, hopefully pull off somewhat of a surprise result and take that confidence into a nice run of games.

[hammerman11]

433 for this one
Diop Cresswell lanzini and vlasic in
Dawson Johnson benrahma Antonio out

1-1 draw or we sneak it 1-0

[prophet:marginal]

Without Cresswell, we lose creativity; that was as clear as day last night.

I imagine that Fornals didn't play the full 90 last night because he simply has to on Saturday.

We are set, realistically, to do to Chelsea what we did to Brighton. That looks a bit defeatist, to some, but it is playing to our team's strengths (when Cress is absent). Vlasic's lack of pitch time is puzzling at the minute.

I hope he gets a chance to play some part in our forthcoming matches.

[Puff Daddy]

Time to lump it up. That's what Sam's Baggies did against them at Stamford Bridge did last Februray and they put 5 past them. Definitely, the way to go