Wednesday, March 28

Arthur within spitting distance of a recall?

One rare piece of good news for West Ham is that Arthur Masuaku is available again after his six-match suspension for spitting at a Wigan player, which did appear to be out of character. He must be grateful to Jamie Carragher for making his spitting image at Wigan not look quite so bad. He might not be better than Lukakau, but Masuaku did make a difference when Moyes started playing him on the left of a five-man defence. In the six games that Arthur has missed there have been four calamitous defeats against Brighton, Liverpool, Swansea and Burnley. This is probably not a coincidence. 

Arthur's one of the few players capable of beating a man and getting a cross in and Arnie for one would benefit from his service, as might Chicharito. He can also hold the ball and buy time with his dribbles when we're struggling. Assuming Collins is still injured after the Dagenham friendly, West Ham might line up against Southampton with Zabaleta and Masuaku as wing backs and Ogboma, Rice and Cresswell as the three centre backs. While Adrian should return in goal after Hart's latest gaffe.

Another piece of good news is that Edmilson Fernandes is fit again too, which at least gives an option of replacing central midfielders Noble and Kouyate if they tire during games. 

It's not been an easy three weeks after the Burnley match. We have to get a result from the Southampton game and Arthur just might make a difference. 

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