Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Mee (c), Tarkowski, Taylor, McNeil, Westwood, Cork, Gudmundsson, Wood, Rodriguez Subs: Hennessey (GK), Pieters, Bardsley, Long, Collins, Brownhill, Lennon, Thomas, Vydra
West Ham: Fabiański, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Masuaku, Rice ©, Souček, Bowen, Lanzini, Benrahma, Antonio Subs: Areola, Ashby, Baptiste, Alese, Noble, Král, Vlašić, Fornals, Yarmolenko

Hammers fans looking at the Premier League table should be wary of adding a further three points to the club's current tally of twenty seven as a matter of fact, Sunday's opponents Burnley are already embroiled in a relegation dog fight and will be looking to get themselves out of a hole by getting a positive result.

Speaking of 'positive results', Burnley's players will have benefited from NOT having played their game with Tottingham last week due to a Covid outbreak among Conti's players and staff, as well as NOT being involved in any other competition.

Ever the thorough manager, David Moyes watched Brentford play Watford in last night's Premier League fixture that was dramatically won by the home team in the closing minutes of added time. The fact that there was in excess of five minutes of injury time was indicative of the way both sets of players approached the game!

Another one bites the dust

West Ham: Alphonse Areola (GK), Jamal Baptiste, Emmanuel Longelo, Sonny Perkins, Harrison Ashby, Ajibola Alese, Mark Noble (c) , Alex Král, Andriy Yarmolenko, Pablo Fornals, Nikola Vlašić.
Subs: Darren Randolph, David Martin, Vladimir Coufal, Arthur Masuaku, Issa Diop, Manuel Lanzini, Said Benrahma, Keenan Forson ,Freddie Potts, Kamarai Swyer.

Zagreb: Livakovic (GK), Sutalo, Theophile-Catherine, Peric, Ristovski, Ademi, Gojak, Stefulj, Ivanusec, Orsic (c), Andric.
Subs: Cavlina, Zagorac, Moharrami, Lauritsen, Tolic, Misic, Bulat, Juric, Baturina, Dilaver, Menalo, Spikic.

Word reaching us from Hammers 'goose green' training ground is that David Moyes will make wholesale changes from the team that vanquished London rivals Chelsea at the weekend, that 3-2 victory came at considerable cost as both Ben Johnson and Kurt Zouma picked up bad injuries.

As tonight's UEFA Europa League Cup game is essentially a dead rubber, given that Hammers have already topped their Group and have automatically moved to the last 16 stage, there has been a clamour for David Moyes to select a team almost entirely comprising of youth players.

Who would have thought it a couple of years ago? If someone had told you that Hammers, then deeply embroiled in a relegation battle, might well be facing up to the mighty and legendary Barcelona in an 'elite' European Cup Competition, you might have thought that they needed sectioning under the mental health act!

After a rather underwhelming summer transfer season, both the fans and the press are eager to find out about what players would go where next January. When it comes to the Hammers, everyone from BettingNews88 to the top sports outlets seems to know for sure that German international Antonio Rudiger is headed for London Stadium this summer on a free transfer. Now, in turn, insiders over at Claret & Hugh have heard something that can dout the Hammers’ hopes to have him next summer.

There are many things to look forward to before the holidays - but there is also one to look back on. So, before you dig into today’s news and odds in your favourite soccer betting app, take a moment and join West Ham United’s official webpage in wishing Sir Geoff Hurst a happy 80th.

2x3-2 Wins Versus Top 2-Cost=2 Centre Backs

So there we have it, Kurt Zouma will be out injured for a bare minimum of six weeks after the results of a scan were revealed, he could be unavailable for up to THREE months following the injury he picked up in the thrilling 3-2 victory over the then Premier League leaders! Zouma's injury of course was preceded by the season ending injury fellow centre back Angelo Ogbonna sustained in the equally enthralling 3-2 victory over current Premier League leaders Liverpool!

News that Kurt Zouma will be out of contention for between 6-12 weeks, whilst unwelcome came as no surprise to anyone who has played football at ANY level, thankfully Kurt's injury was short of the full ACL that was feared. Nevertheless his lack of availability, in tandem with the loss of Angelo Ogbonna for the entire remainder of the season, has meant that David Moyes HAS had to seriously refocus his January transfer window plans at the last minute.