West Ham United look forward to the weekend visit of Manchester City after having nearly a fortnight to celebrate the humiliation of London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
The decision to go into the game without a striker paid off sensationally for Sam Allardyce and now he has to decide how to approach the title contenders at Upton Park.
Carlton Cole has been added to the Hammers squad to give the East Enders extra options up-front. It remains to be seen how much game time the former England international will get.
Three options vying for the one starting place seems like a strong position to be in, but with none of them yet to score Big Sam has a big decision on his hands.
Manchester City will be without influential captain Vincent Kompany, which makes the defensive line considerably weaker. But there are huge question marks whether the West Ham strikers can take advantage. Andy Carroll up against the Belgian would have been a great battle but both men are sidelined.
Modibo Maiga has looked anything but a Premier League player this season so his place shouldn’t be retained. Mladen Petric scored in the friendly defeat against Charlton Athletic and could overtake Maiga in the pecking order.
Cole is unlikely to feature for the 90 minutes after just signing and Allardyce has the dilemma of which way he wants his side to play.
Should Allardyce play a striker and try to expose Kompany’s absence with an aerial bombardment involving one of the forwards, or must he stick with the team that destroyed Spurs and give freedom to the likes of Ravel Morrison and Mohamed Diame?
He’s gotta go same way as spurs game! It’s by far our best performance of the season. Playing it against City will be a great test for the formation and if it really ain’t working I would put Petric on and see what he’s all about. Love another result like the last one.
We Havn’t got a striker at the moment capable of causing problems,but look at our midfield we’ve got it there in abundance.I say stick.coyi