Bowen's England debut, Yarmy's mixed fortunes

Mixed fortunes for Hammers current and former in the international games of our never-ending season. Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice both started for England against Hungary in the Nations League, the first time two West Ham players have started for England since Rob Green and Matthew Upson played together in 2010. Bowen worked hard during England's defeat and was a little unlucky not to score with a first time volley that went straight to the keeper. But England looked jaded and after the demands on Bowen this season it's surely asking too much of all the players to perform at this stage.

Meanwhile former Hammer Andriy Yarmolenko scored a great goal against Scotland for Ukraine, featuring some fine control and a clever lob. He then scored an unfortunate own goal against Wales nodding in Gareth Bale's free kick as Ukraine's World Cup dream ended. Yarmy always looks much better when playing for Ukraine and it's still a bit of a mystery how a top international could have flopped at West Ham. He clearly has class, but after a bad cruciate injury lacked the pace and intensity for the Premier League. But bearing in mind the horrific invasion of his country we all wish him well and will enjoy the memories of that crucial winner against Chelsea and Yarmy's emotional goals against Villa and Sevilla.

Yarmolenko out for the season

More bad news on the injury front. Andriy Yarmolenko has torn his achilles tendon and is now likely to be out for the rest of the season. Pellegrini hasn't had much luck, seeing both his statement £17m signing and the influential Lanzini sidelined with long-term injuries. He's also without Carlos Sanchez for the season, while Wilshere, Carroll (as ever) and Reid have also had serious injuries, while Chicharito contracted glandular fever. Still, a treatment room that's busier than the Stratford station interchange is surely the West Ham Way. 

There are options to replace Yarmolenko. I liked Diangana's confident attitude against Spurs and he's not afraid to try fancy stepovers against international defenders from a top four side. Antonio could be another option, if he ever manages to regain his pace and full fitness, or we could play Anderso behind Arnie in a more central role. While there were signs that Arnautovic and sub Javier Hernandez were linking up well late on against Spurs. West Ham's big problem is not scoring when we get the opportunities, so my own choice would be to give Hernandez a run alongside Arnie with Anderson feeding them— Chicharito might not do much apart from score, but that's not a bad knack to have.

Chants would be a fine thing

Where have all the chants gone? Sitting in the pub after the Macclesfield game my pal Matt pointed out that with so many new players in the side, we've not had time to think up chants for most of them. Of the side that played Man United probably only Arthur Masuaku (who is better than Lukaku) and Mark Noble have their own chants. Even Arnautovic doesn't appear to have a song, apart from the Stoke-style chants of "Arnie! Arnie!". 

Some of our injured or dropped players have chants and songs, namely Adrian, Lanzini, Andy Carroll and Winston Reid. But the new boys are bereft of songs. In fact our last really good song was something about a certain French midfielder. 

Someone on the Facebook group Upton Parklife suggested that Yarmolenko might scan to I'm Gonna Be by the Proclaimers ("Yarmolenko! Yarmolenko! Der der, der, der, der, der, der, der!" etc) which is promising. On current form Declan Rice deserves a chant ("he's not Irish anymore!"?) as do Issa Diop, Fabian Balbuena, Lukasz Fabianski, Arnie and Felipe Anderson. Any suggestions?

Yar Yar Yarmolenko!

Never mind some minor World Cup fixture. West Ham have made another big signing in Andriy Yarmolenko. The 28-year-old Borussia Dortmund winger/striker has cost a rumoured £17.5 million. He's certainly got a good scoring record, being the Ukraine national team's second top all-time top scorer with 35 goals, behind Shevchenko. He also bagged 99 in 228 appearances for Dynamo Kiev. Yarmolenko wasn't an unqualified success at Dortmund, netting three in 18 games, though he did score in the Champions League against Spurs. But he does seem a quality player and added to Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop and Wilshere a much reshaped side is starting to emerge. And if nothing else he should be better than our last Ukrainian, Sergei Rebrov.