Brighton and Hove Albion: Ryan, Bruno, Duffy, Dunk, Bong, Kayal, Propper, Jahanbakhsh, Knockaert, March, Murray. Subs: Button, Bernardo, Balogun, Izquierdo, Andone, Bissouma, Locadia.
West Ham United: Fabianski, Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku, Rice, Noble, Obiang, Yarmolenko, Arnautovic, Anderson. Subs: Adrian, Fredericks, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Snodgrass, Antonio, Perez.
Who would have thought it? Nearly a quarter of the way in to the season and despite stumping up the best part of £100 Million and signing a World Class manager in Manuel Pellegrini, West Ham United's co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan have been conspicuous by their absence in the media. So rare have there been any comments from the two Davids that rumours persist as to whether the elderly duo have in fact been abducted by Aliens, it would seem the only logical way of explaining their silence.
Just when things were progressing swimmingly for the Hammers, a reminder of how fragile their precarious early progress is has arrived in the form of one Andrew Carroll being lined up for a potential return to the first team. A lot has happened since Carroll picked up his obligatory three to four month injury as the precursor to his and West Ham's season, is it going to be another Ground Hog Day?
The lows and highs of Premier League football cannot be better illustrated than by looking at the fortunes of West Ham United over the last couple of weeks, from crisis club to slayers of Red Devils and fillers of Toffee laden mouths!
Winston Reid and James Collins at their zenith as defenders were a formidable duo for West Ham, however Reid sustained an unfortunate injury towards the end of last season that followed on from what had increasingly become a regular series of injuries involving a lengthy lay off and recovery period.
By the final whistle of West Ham United's thumping victory over struggling Manchester United, it had been just a tad under thirteen days since the Manuel Pellegrini inspired Hammers renaissance began following the International break, Four games, three victories and one draw, scoring fourteen and conceding only two is in stark contrast to the woeful previous four games.
West Ham United: Fabianski, Zabaleta, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku, Rice, Obiang, Noble (c), Yarmolenko, Felipe Anderson, Arnautovic Subs: Adrian (GK), Fredericks, Ogbonna, Snodgrass, Diangana, Antonio, Lucas
Manchester United: De Gea, Young, Lindelof, Smalling, Shaw, Matic, Fellaini, McTominay, Pogba, Martial, Lukaku. Subs: Grant, Bailly, Mata, Rashford, Fred, Herrera, Darmian.
Carlos Sanchez, signed from Fiorentina on transfer deadline day, has sustained what is rumoured to be a cruciate injury which will keep the 32 year old out of action for possibly the remainder of the season, this news quickly following that of new starlet Xande Silva sustaining a class 2 hamstring injury has put a bit of a dampener on the positive energy generated by recent results.
Having endured a 'horror' start to the season West Ham quickly became labled a club in crisis, leading to newly appointed manager Manuel Pellegrini's inclusion near the top of the list of 'The first Premier League manager to be sacked', second only to Jose Mourinho. Fast forward six games from the beginning of the season and the situation, while still not making perfect reading, is far far better than it was.
West Ham: Adrian, Cresswell, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Sanchez, Obiang, Diop, Diangana, Snodgrass, Perez, Antonio. Subs: Fabianski, Balbuena, Yarmolenko, Rice, Masuaku, Coventry, Powell.
Macclesfield: Ohara, Fitzpatrick, Lowe, Kellerher, Grimes, Marsh, Smith, Napa, Maycock, Pearson, Whitaker. Subs: Simpson, Hodgkiss, Wilson, Blisset, Welch-Hayes, Vincenti, Arthur.