Carlton Cole

So on to the Malaga match today and it will be very interesting indeed to see whether Big Sam continues to play one-up and with whom should that be the case!

Carlton Cole was in a right old battle yesterday and it is well known that the idea of playing two games inside 24 hours is really not on given his various past injuries.

So where does the manager go today; perhaps back to the famous striker-less formation or will it be Ricardo Vaz Te leading the line.

There’s a real opportunity to be inventive today against arguably the best opposition we have faced so far this pre-season

After the Spanish outfit beat Newcastle yesterday, this game represents our biggest test so far as Schalke were apparently in the very early stages of their pre-season.

I think we all want to see Mauro Zarate involved along with with new boy Carl Jenkinson down the right.

Injury considerations aside I believe we are likely to see the the nearest thing yet to the likely starting line up for the Premier League campaign but working out the machinations of Sam’s thinking is never going to be easy.

Injury news is that Cheikh Kouyate took a bang to his leg in a challenge in New Zealand, while James Tomkins (groin), Guy Demel (groin) and Leo Chambers (hamstring) will also hope to be fit.