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West Ham United will look to bounce back from Carabao Cup humiliation when they face Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
Irons boss Manuel Pellegrini decided to make wholesale changes to his team when they faced League One outfit Oxford United on Wednesday, but it completely backfired as a largely second-string side were thrashed 4-0 by Karl Robinson’s men.
The result was even more surprising the Hammers went into the clash on the back of taking seven points from a possible nine in the Premier League, keeping three successive clean sheets in the process.
We expect Pellegrini to ring the changes again for the trip to the south coast, as the fringe players failed to take their opportunity to impress.
Here is our predicted West Ham XI…
Following such a poor display against Oxford, the West Ham starting XI pretty much picks itself following the 2-0 win against Manchester United last weekend – give or take one or two positions.
Lukasz Fabianski lines up in goal behind Ryan Fredericks, Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop in defence, with Aaron Cresswell getting the nod over Arthur Masuaku after his promising display and goal against the Red Devils.
In midfield, Declan Rice and Mark Noble both return to the team-sheet with Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko starting on the left and right wing respectively.
We have a feeling Pellegrini might switch things up with the third central position however.
There appears to be three players vying for the position after the Chilean confirmed on Friday that Manuel Lanzini is back in training after injury, but we don’t expect him to be risked from the start against the Cherries.
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That leaves Jack Wilshere and Pablo Fornals – neither of whom covered themselves in much praise on Wednesday – to fight it out for the remaining midfield spot.
We have a feeling that the Chilean could opt for the former, who of course knows Bournemouth well having played for them previously, and then use the former Arsenal man’s Spanish teammate – who still appears to be adapting to English football – from the bench.
Last but not least, Sebastien Haller is once again the focal point of the attack.
