Manu Lanzi is set to start against Arsenal as the Hammers go hunting the Gooners and wrecking Arsene Wenger’s Emirates excellent home record on Sunday.
Lanzini came on as a late sub against Stoke with David Moyes admitting he was worried that the midfielder’s knee still wasn’t quite right.
But we understand the Argentinian – often named as our main man – has been in training all week and is ready to replace Joao Mario as the creator behind Marko Arnautovic.
Andy Carroll is also gagging for a start after his Stoke heroics but Moyes is likely to use him – dependent on match conditions – as a sub bringing him on probably for the last half hour.
The manager is likely to stick with a cautious approach at the Emirates, which will remain a feature of our season until safety is finally achieved.
He is set to play five at the back with Edi Fernandes holding onto the right midfield slot along with Mark Noble, Cheik Kouyate and Lanzini.
Likely team: Hart, Zaba, Rice, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, Fernandes, Noble, Kouyate, Lanzini, Arnie.
I hope that’s the team because it’s the best one with the fit players we have available.
And probably wise to play cautiously ,, we need every point we can get . Going gun ho would be very dangerous .
Give me strength.
Good team but i’d put Mario in place of Fernandes. Mario is just getting his feet in the Prem so should continue his starting place. The gooners midfield will run rings around Fernandes.
Allegedly Inter have named their price for Mario at GBP25mil which means either Moyes or the board don’t fancy that price so are therefore not going to play Mario anymore as he will be heading back to Inter at the end of the season. Or, Moyes doesn’t think he can accommodate Mario & Manu on the pitch at the same time? Which is a shame as i think in attack when we have the ball, Manu can push up with Marko as a front 2 and Mario drops in the hole behind them to dictate play.