West Ham Preview

Well, to have ANY chance of Champions League football next season, we need to win 6 out of 6 & hope Arsenal lose 3 out of 6. No bother then! Er…

On the injury front news, Gabriel Agbonlahor is likely to be out, but Emile Heskey is expected to return. Carlos Cuellar is looking good for a return too, although nothing confirmed yet. Martin Laursen and Wilfred Bouma remain on the injured list. I would imagine that if the former is all the case then I’d expect Heskey and Cuellar to come in for Agbonlahor and Knight.

Personally I thought Nathaniel Delfounso did well enough against Everton – and has looked good whenever he has been involved this season – to push for a starting place and I believe that it is a better combination up top;  for me it should be Carew/Heskey with Agbonlahor/Delfounso. Plus of course 4-5-1/4-3-3 is still an option, but I expect us to play 4-4-2.

West Ham have Dean Ashton and Carlton Cole both injured, but if we don’t improve our defending tomorrow then they are still likely to grab a goal or two!

They are no mugs at West Ham but our bad run has gone on too long now and the law of averages alone suggests it will end soon… the last two performances have also been much better and therefore I am feeling confident that we can get the win. If we don’t, we need to start looking down rather than up…

Prediction: Villa 3-1 West Ham