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David Moyes believes Michail Antonio has "a good chance" of making his return to first team action against Tottenham at the London Olympic Stadium this weekend.

The Hammers boss, speaking on Friday ahead of Sunday's latest London derby has been without his key striker since Antonio limped off 16 minutes form the end of United's goalless draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage earlier this month.

However Moyes is confident the 30-year-old is ready for selection once again having had the opportunity to rest his troubled hamstring for the last fortnight.




"He has a good chance because he has had a few days training," replied Moyes when asked about Antonio's chances of being fit to face Spurs on Sunday. "But we are always careful with Mick and trying to make sure we get him right.

"He was close for the last game [against Sheffield United] but we did not think it was worth the risk. He's had a couple of days training although he's not been training with the group every day. He has been doing some individual work and hopefully we'll know about more about him tomorrow."

During his absence Antonio's place was taken by Jarrod Bowen, who started the 3-0 win against the Blades in a more advanced position than usual. And Moyes was full of praise for the former Hull man, who is expected to return to a more familiar position this weekend - should Antonio be available.

"Sometimes it is part of your job as a coach [to be adaptable] as you can't always buy somebody when you lose a player or get an injury," he added. "You have to find solutions within your squad, we have had to do it a couple of times since I have been here.

"I thought Jarrod played really well when he came in this week and it's not as if it is strange to Jarrod because he has played as a centre-forward many times for Hull City. It wasn't too unusual for him.

"But part of having a good squad nowadays is you need your squad to be flexible. So people who can play in two or three positions is always good. Hopefully, we don't need to use him too much [as a striker] but if we get a few injuries we may have to."




Another forward coming in for plenty of praise since he joined the club has been Jesse Lingard, who was back to his best against Sheffield.

And although Moyes is constantly having to answer questions about the on loan midfielder, perhaps tired of having to respond to countless questions about the England international he pointed out that West Ham have several more players worthy of equal praise.

"I don't think anybody doubted the ability Jesse has," Moyes responded when asked about his contribution to West Ham since joining on loan from Manchester Utd. "I think Jesse has got to do a lot of the basics well because that will help us. We know he has got an energy to help the team as well.

"I think if he goes about the job as well as he has done recently then we will be happy, but I still think that Jesse can add to it as well, I think he can add bits to his game and I want him to continue to try and improve.

"We are not here for the Jesse Lingard show though - we are here for West Ham to improve but we are certainly happy to have Jesse and he has started very well.

"As for goalscorers, you often need people to come up and get the goals when maybe you least expect it. Jesse had a few goals the other week, Jarrod Bowen has scored a few this season, but we needed a few from other areas too.

"I think Declan Rice getting a goal, Ryan Fredericks and Issa Diop from a header is good as spreading the goals around the team is a good thing- but I also would like to have somebody who is getting 15 or 20 goals [per season]. If we could have one of them, great."




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