One of West Ham’s nine new signings has raved about two West Ham stars who were already in the building.
A lot of questions will be answered by Julen Lopetegui when he names his West Ham team today.
Two seemingly never ending weeks of inane international break are over and the Premier League is back.
West Ham fans seem to have spent most of it debating what team Lopetegui should be picking at Fulham.
The Hammers lost both fixtures last season. And the away game was one of many hammerings West Ham suffered as they shipped 74 goals last term.
Lopetegui has almost completely overhauled the defence, signing Max Kilman, Jean-Clair Todibo and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Nine players arrived at the London Stadium and West Ham have been widely praised for their transfer window business.
Fulham have lost a number of key players but have brought in some good replacements – two of them alleged West Ham targets in the not too distant past.
Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson were both heavily linked with the Hammers over the summer.
West Ham signed Crysencio Summerville for £26m from Leeds and brought in Carlos Soler and Guido Rodriguez in central midfield.
History shows West Ham have the better of this fixture more often than not.
And Lopetegui will be hoping to really get some traction for his new-look side at Craven Cottage.
Lopetegui makes single West Ham change for Fulham
The Spaniard has a range of selection headaches for the game.
He has five midfielders competing for two spots and a dilemma about who to start at centre-back.
His biggest decision will be what to do up front, though. Particularly with Niclas Fullkrug unlikely to be available due to injury.
West Ham told Hammers News yesterday the big German only had a 10 per cent chance of making the game.
So assuming he is unavailable, this is how we predict the Hammers will line up.
Lopetegui makes a single West Ham change for Fulham but it’s a big one.
West Ham would never normally risk Michail Antonio’s hamstrings in the situation he finds himself in at the moment.
Antonio played over 90 minutes and then 86 minutes four days apart for Jamaica over the international break.
He was in action in Honduras in the early hours of Wednesday. The forward then completed a 12,000 mile round trip back to London.
Long haul flights are not great for aching limbs.
It’s a big one as Summerville comes in with Bowen up top
Many Hammers fans have been calling for Todibo to come in for Konstantinos Mavropanos at centre-back.
He has been one of the team’s better performers thus far, though. And he starred for Greece keeping two clean sheets in two wins over the break.
With that said, this is how we see West Ham lining up against Fulham.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, we think there will be just one change with Summerville getting his first Premier League start for West Ham.
The Dutch winger has looked very sharp in cameos.
And he seriously impressed in training over the international break.
So much so the club released a video of a training session titled ‘Summerville shines in training ahead of Fulham’.
The biggest change will be to the structure of the team, though.
Because we think many fans will get what they’ve been asking for.
Jarrod Bowen moved up front, Mohammed Kudus to the right and Summerville on the left, taking Antonio’s place on the teamsheet in the solitary change from the team which started against Man City.
Predicted West Ham starting XI to face Fulham:
Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Emerson, Rodriguez, Alvarez, Paqueta, Kudus, Summerville, Bowen.
The official team will be announced at 1.45pm.
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