To the neutral this wasn an entirely enthralling encounter between Leeds and West Ham at Elland Road, however to those deeply involved, from either side, it was a roller coaster ride of high powered football and high pressure fit bit busting anxiety!
Leeds: Meslier, Dallas, Cresswell, Cooper (c), Firpo, Phillips, Shackleton, Klich, Raphinha, James, Rodrigo Subs: Klaesson, Roberts, Harrison, Gelhardt, Hjelde, Drameh, Summerville, Greenwood, McCarron
West Ham: Fabiański, Coufal, Zouma, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals, Antonio Subs: Areola, Johnson, Dawson, Diop, Noble, Král, Lanzini, Vlašić, Yarmolenko
Ahead of Hammers away game against Leeds today, there seems to have been an inordinate amount of coverage in the build up given to the fitness and availability of several key players for the home team. A day hasn't gone by without some news emanating from Elland Road about this player and that and whether they can make the 1st team.
In 2016 West Ham's then manager Slaven Bilic tried to sign Alexandre Lacazette, negotiations were protracted given the huge fee involved, as is so often the case Hammers tried to low ball the selling club and as a result another team pipped the club to the post evenytually.
Few writers will admit to it, but generally most sports writers spend the latter parts of their evening and earlier parts of their day 'trawling' for information from their sources, some are better known than others. They also check to see who has been cutting and pasting their articles.
Alex Kral made his Hammers competitive debut at Old Trafford last night and didn't disappoint, he had big shoes to step in as effectively he 'carried' skipper Mark Noble through the match and played in the stead of his compatriot Tomas Soucek and Declan Rice.
Hammers fans often scoff at the success of Chelsea and Manchester City, citing the only reason those teams do well is the extraordinary amount of money they have access to in order to blow other clubs out of the water in their transfer dealings. That may well be the case, however neither team seemed to have spent as much time at Drama school as either Manchester United or Liverpool, with the former being the most active Thespians of a bad bunch.
Well, who'd have thought that? Many people, including ourselves, didn't give Hammers a prayer for tonight's game against Manchester United at a packed Old Trafford. Hammers 'glorified' B team, as Mark Noble described it in his post match presser, was totally outclassed by that of Utd's on paper, but as the old saying goes "football is not played on paper, it is played on the field" and so it proved.
Man U: Henderson, Dalot, Lindelof, Bailly, Telles, Matic, Van de Beek, Sancho, Mata, Lingard, Martial Subs: Heaton, Wan-Bissaka, Jones, McTominay, Fernandes, Elanga, Greenwood
West Ham: Areola, Fredericks, Johnson, Diop, Dawson, Masuaku, Kral, Noble, Lanzini, Yarmolenko, Bowen Subs: Randolph, Coufal, Zouma, Ogbonna, Fornals, Vlasic, Benrahma.
Having trod nearly every Declan Rice to 'name your club' path available and exhausted every aspect of his contract negotiations to the max, the football press and media have changed tack and are now focusing on Jarrod Bowen instead. Suddenly the Hammers left footed forward has become the subject of intense scrutiny, with speculation rife that this organisation and that are 'seriously interested' in bringing the 24 year old to their clubs, Tottingham and Liverpool are among his current suitors according to those 'in the know'.