A section of West Ham United fans have taken to Twitter to express their delight that midfielder Mark Noble could be an injury doubt for this weekend’s fixture with Arsenal.
The Hammers’ mainstay has so far started in the centre of midfield alongside new signing Jack Wilshere, but those two appearances have resulted in two losses on the bounce for Manuel Pellegrini.
As reported by the club’s official website and Twitter, the enforcer is facing ‘a race against time to be fit’ for Saturday’s match at the Emirates, with the captain being Pellegrini’s only injury doubt with a back problem.
The Boss reveals we have one new injury doubt for the Arsenal match…https://t.co/Z1LAn1a8qn
— West Ham United (@WestHam) August 23, 2018
This news has delighted the majority of Irons’ fans, with comments including “anyone but Noble” and “smokescreen.”
Forever West Ham has rounded up some of the best tweets:
https://twitter.com/Irons_42/status/1032679483852169216
https://twitter.com/NJThompson94/status/1032710672445067265
😂😂😂 you couldn’t make it up. Someone called it on here earlier this week saying noble won’t get selected and something will come out about him being “injured”
— ⚒ Roman Sweeny ⚒ (@romanwhufc) August 23, 2018
Haha called this, this is just a cover up for him getting dropped
— Ross McClean (@rossmccleanwhu) August 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/Oldiron7/status/1032605706258665472
Declining- Premier league has moved on its quicker more skilful etc….not sad over this we have better players
— Anthony Chaplin💙 (@Tonychaplin1970) August 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/TIFC1895/status/1032625642125361152
True or smokescreen to save face if dropped ?
— Tinie Tempest ⚒️ (@FabienTempest) August 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/AJ041987/status/1032636758398099458
OPINION
It appears as though the West Ham fans believe that saying Noble is an injury doubt for Saturday’s game is just a cover up by Manuel Pellegrini. They actually think he is implying that he has dropped Noble for the match, which would not be surprising based on his previous two performances. He has been a first team regular for the past few seasons, so it would be assumed that the fans would be worried about him potentially missing a match. However, that does not appear to be the case here, as they seem more delighted by the news than anything. It can be argued that they should not be subjecting this sort of treatment on a loyal player such as Noble – after all, he has remained at the club for a long time and they should be thanking him for that. This injury may just spark a series of absences by the midfielder, which by the looks of it, would not concern the supporters in the slightest.
