OPINION
West Ham’s clash with Everton next weekend feels like it could be a big one.
Both sides still hold an outside hope of a seventh spot finish, but with Wolves and Watford both going well, you can’t help feeling that one of either the Hammers or the Toffees will drop out of that race sooner rather than later.
Saturday’s match has taken on the look of proper six pointer, and Manuel Pellegrini’s side will take any advantage they can get to eek out a result.
That includes injuries to opposition players.
Lucas Digne, one of the Blues’ most consistent and impressive performers this season, was forced out of France’s 4-1 win over Moldova on Friday night with a thigh injury, and has been ruled out of Monday’s clash with Iceland too, as reported by Football.London.
That will put him in serious doubt for Saturday’s meeting at the London Stadium, and West Ham fans will be over the moon at the prospect of him missing out.
The likely replacement for Digne, should he fail to reach fitness in time, will be veteran full-back Leighton Baines.
The former England international, now 34, has looked shaky when he has featured this season, and the lung-busting stamina and worked delivery that he has become renowned for during the course of his career appears to have been blunted somewhat by his advancing years and a spell out of the first team.
The Hammers would, therefore, fancy their chances of running him ragged, and should they imply the pace and power of a Michail Antonio or someone similar, you could see this being the kind of minor detail that puts a hugely different complexion on things.
Antonio is a mercurial talent who can blow hot and cold, but on his day, when he is in full flight, there are few players who can handle the power of the £70,000-a-week juggernaut [Sportrac], and he could really punish a beleaguered Toffees side.
If Pellegrini has any sense he will unleash him into the melee against the ageing Baines and watch him cause absolute carnage.
