England face Ivory Coast on Tuesday for what will be another decent test following their narrow victory over Switzerland who are currently 14th in the FIFA World rankings. So bearing in mind it will be the last World Cup warm up, Ivory Coast will provide a totally different test to an England team that will have West Ham's Declan Rice at the heart of its defence.
David Moyes has been in need of a straight 180 as his Hammers team chase down glory on TWO different fronts, juggling injuries to star players hasn't helped his demeanour which is 'prickly' at the best of times, so the news that one of his 'top boys' is ready willing and able to join the fray for the team's remaining eight Premier League games AND the vital UEFA Europa League Cup ties beginning with the two legged 1/4 final against Lyon will have pleased the manager no end, as hopefully he can navigate a path to the final in Sevilla later this year as well as maintaining the club's domestic
The International break used to be a time of rest and recuperation for the majority of West Ham United's players, but since the club has become 'massive' that is no longer the case. With International recognition, comes the managerial caveat of potential injuries being picked up.
Hammers manager David Moyes was given an early present in the form of Michail Antonio's non selection for the Jamaica team's three 'dead rubber' matches, although he will be fearful of his other players getting injured, particularly the club's talisman Declan Rice.
"West Ham are MASSIVE everywhere we go" is the self-deprecating chant that has become very popular among Hammers fans of late, David Moyes has managed to get his 'rag tag' band of players punching well above their weight in the Premier League AND in Europe.
Hammers ONLY striker Michail Antonio has NOT been called up to represent Jamaica by the Reggae Boyz coach Paul Hall for their forthcoming World Cup games as it is believed Hammers boss David Moyes 'intervened'. The games, which were ALL due to be played within 7 days, are essentially dead rubbers, as Jamaica cannot possibly qualify for the next tournament due to their poor earlier qualifying results.
Running out of puff can mean many different things depending on the environment and/or the precise situation and/or location. It could be ravers who have run out of comestibles, or and old steam train struggling to get up an incline furiously being stoked by 'sooty men', or in West Ham United's case a team of players who have literally run themselves into the ground.
Tottenham: Lloris (c), Romero, Dier, Davies, Doherty, Betancur, Højbjerg, Reguilón, Kulusevski, Son, Kane Subs: Gollini (GK), Sánchez, Royal, Rodon, Winks, White, Bergwijn, Lucas Moura, Scarlett
West Ham: Fabiański, Johnson, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell, Masuaku, Souček, Rice (c), Lanzini, Benrahma, Antonio Subs: Areola, Fredericks, Diop, Noble, Král, Fornals, Vlašić, Yarmolenko, Perkins
Make no mistake, this Sunday's clash between East and North London is a whole lot more than a London Derby and it's commensurate bragging rights for a few days, the game's hosts Tottenham will be desperate to get a result because their entire season has essentially fizzled out from a competition winning point of view, the best they can hope for is qualifying for the Champions or Europa League Cup competitions via their final Premier League points tally.
Andriy Yarmolenko's heroic exploits of the last fortnight go some way to show how important the game of football can be through entire countries and communities, his home country Ukraine is still under remorseless assault by Mad Monk Putin's overwhelming but under performing military, football has now become a forgotten pleasure.
The old expression "you had to have been there" in order to have experienced a tumultuous game of football is an extremely hackneyed usage of the English language and a classic example of lazy journalism, which as you know is something we give short shrift to at the Org.