West Ham secured a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle United on Saturday but now face the prospect of a midweek clash with Cardiff City.
The Hammers are set to host the Bluebirds at the London Stadium on Tuesday and given the headache injuries have caused Manuel Pellegrini this season, he is likely to make a few changes to the side that overcame the Magpies just to be on the safe side.
The Hammers boss is expected to keep Lukasz Fabianski in goal but there is likely to be changes made regarding the four players that will be deployed in front of him.
Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena will likely keep their places in defence, despite the latter appearing to take a knock on Saturday, as Pellegrini won’t want a completely unfamiliar back four playing.
The Hammers boss will likely start Arthur Masuaku in place of Aaron Cresswell as the English left-back was dubbed not able to continue against the Magpies so it seems unlikely he’ll be 100% for Tuesday.
Pellegrini is also expected to drop Pablo Zabaleta, who earns £75,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), as the manager previously shared, as reported on by Football.London, that it was impossible for the veteran to play all the games in December.
This means the versatile Michail Antonio, who Pellegrini has regularly deployed this season in an attacking role, will likely take Zabaleta’s place against Cardiff.
Declan Rice, Felipe Anderson, Mark Noble and both forwards Javier Hernandez as well as Marko Arnautovic are expected to retain their places in the starting line-up for Tuesday clash as the majority of them excelled against the Magpies.
Arnautovic was arguably the worst performer of those five players but as the Hammers’ star man and regular goalscorer it would be a surprise if he was axed.
After making two changes to his defences, the manager’s third and final expected to change is expected to take place on his right flank.
Given that Pellegrini will want to ensure all his players stay fit and are able to deal with the festive fixture build-up, 31-year-old Robert Snodgrass is likely to drop to the bench after working extremely hard against the Magpies.
This is because his ideal replace Grady Diangana was surprisingly dropped for the trip to St James Park and it seems the most likely reason for that was so the player was refreshed for the clash with Cardiff.
Therefore it’s expected that the refreshed ace will be recalled to replace Snodgrass in the starting line-up.
