OPINION
Manuel Pellegrini is expected to make minimal changes to the side that overcame Fulham when tasked with trying to defeat Watford on Saturday.
The Hammers manager will likely stick with the front-four that impressed against the Cottagers without really getting out of second gear, which means Javier Hernandez, Michail Antonio, Robert Snodgrass and Felipe Anderson are expected to start.
Antonio, who earns £70,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), will probably keep his place as a reward for being clinical in the 2-0 victory over Fulham as Pellegrini previously publicly suggested the attacker needed to “score”, as quoted by the Mirror, more.
The Hammers boss is also set to keep with the midfield duo of Declan Rice and Mark Noble as the pair helped stopped the Cottagers scoring at the weekend and the manager does seem to favour those two whenever their available.
Pellegrini is also expected to keep with Pablo Zabaleta, Fabian Balbuena, Issa Diop and Lukasz Fabianski in his starting line-up as he’ll have faith in them to keep Watford at bay.
The Hammers manager will be aware that the Hornets have surprise a few sides this season in the Premier League as it’s not by accident that they currently sit in the top half of the table.
However Pellegrini is expected to make his one and only change to the side that started the 2-0 victory over Fulham by chopping left-back Arthur Masuaku from his team.
The 25-year-old seems on course to suffer the axe due to not overly impressing in his last few outings that he has been allow to make after coming back into team after Aaron Cresswell got injured.
The 29-year-old was an unused substitute against Crystal Palace and Fulham so it seems likely that Pellegrini will look to him in order to make his side capable of dealing with the Hornets’ threat.
This means that Pellegrini is expected to make one change in personnel as he likely will reward Antonio and chop Masuaku from his starting line-up to be able to contend with Watford.
