Despite his protestations to the contrary, West Ham manager David Moyes will NOT select club talisman Michail Antonio in the starting line up for today's 4th round FA Cup tie against Doncaster at the London Stadium. The chronic lack of striker availability that Moyes is dealing with is unprecedented and due to the fact that record signing Sebastien Haller's transfer to Ajax essentially came out of the blue.

As we are still within the January transfer window, ridiculously far fetched rumours about potential acquisitions are generally the flavour of the day, however some of those 'corkers' have been cast in to the shadows with one of the 'latest' transfer rumours doing the rounds, namely that of Issa Diop being given permission to go out on loan to SPURS of all people!

Having been linked with any and every striker that has a pulse in the last fortnight, West Ham have now apparently decided that there were so many options available that they needed to trim the list down drastically by narrowing their player acquisition criteria, the simplest way of doing so being to concentrate on the potential arrivees fitness levels, especially their hamstrings.

West Ham: Fabianski, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Coufal, Soucek, Rice, Benrahma, Bowen, Antonio, Lanzini. Subs: Randoph, Balbuena, Alves, Diop, Fredericks, Noble, Johnson, Fornals, Yarmolenko.
West Brom: Johnstone, O’Shea, Bartley, Ajayi, Gibbs, Livermore, Gallagher, Sawyers, Pereira, Robinson, Grosicki. Subs: Button, Furlong, Ivanovic, Edwards, Peltier, Kipre, Field, Krovinovic, Robson-Kanu.

Some Barclays Premier League fans in this country, particularly those of West Ham, are unhappy with the lack of transfer activity being conducted by their clubs, the Hammers board appear to be adopting their usual 'scatter shot' approach to signing the forward everyone knows the club needs.

The list of supposed 'targets' gets longer by the day as closure of the transfer window looms, there are so many 'candidates' it is difficult to keep up, the need to get a 'good deal' is paramount due to the chronic lack of finances at the London Stadium.

Craig Dawson's elevation to first team starter came as a complete surprise to most fans who were underwhelmed at best by his arrival from relegated Watford on loan, known as the 'Relegator', Dawson had previously played for and got relegated with this evening's visitors to the London Stadium, West Brom, who he left to join Watford following the Baggies relegation!

When questioned as to the reasons behind his 'swimmingly' humorous goal celebration, Hammer's forward and talisman, Michail Antonio, adroitly told the Amazon media team that he had adopted the 'swimmer' celebration as a forfeit because he had lost a game of Call of Duty against Hammers captain Declan Rice.

One by one little records are being broken by a West Ham side that has been rejeuvinated by a rejeuvinated David Moyes. The Hammers manager looks like an entirely different person now from the cadava like image of 'ghostliness' that first turned up at the London Stadium, the 57 year old Scot has the air about him of someone who knows exactly what he is trying to achieve and precisely where he is trying to take his players.

West Ham: Fabiański, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals, Antonio Subs: Randolph (GK), Fredericks, Johnson, Alves, Diop, Noble, Lanzini, Yarmolenko, Odubeko
Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee (c), Pieters, Gudmundsson, Westwood, Brownhill, Brady, Wood, Barnes Subs: Norris (GK), Cork, McNeil, Stephens, Rodriguez, Bardsley, Vydra, Long, Benson

Hammers goal keeper Lukasz Fabianski is going to have a late fitness test just before the home tie against Burnley at the London Stadium this afternoon. Fabianski has missed the last two games with a thigh injury that threatens to de-rail a very stable defensive unit. Darren Randolph has deputised for Fabianski and looks likely to continue this afternoon.