The weekend of course brings the final pre-season game of the season with Atalanta arriving at the London Stadium.
After an unbeaten pre-season thus far the lads will be keen to complete a clean sweep against the Champions League qualifying outfit.
And there is probably little doubt that David |Moyes will be putting out his strongest team in the first half given how close we now are to the start of the season.
We hear that new keeper Areola After his performances in pre-season Said Benrahma will also be in with a big shout of selection.
In a season rich with promise we are all hoping of course for a couple of more signings at least although there seems little possibility of that before the weekend.
So we would expect to see this team line up for the first half at east: Areola, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna/Diop, Cresswell; Bowen ,Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Benrahma, Antonio.
I’m really hoping the boss gives Conor Coventry another chance as both he and Ben Johnson have been in great form thus far and hopefully have reached a stage where they can expect permanent squad inclusion.
That’s basically what I call the 1’st team.
Johnson and Coventry have been really good from what I’ve seen so far.
Would like to see Alves get some more minutes against Atalanta as well as Baptiste.
Most likely, minutes will be split between our Euro big hitters quartet and squad players for the first half a dozen games as it’s effectively their pre season.