Did Lanzini return too soon?

Bad news is that Manuel Lanzini is out or another six weeks, following his tendon injury against Liverpool. He'll be a big loss and you do worry it might be a case of rushing a player back to action too soon. West Ham seem to have learned to be patient with the likes of Andy Carroll — we're seeing the benefit of his having a late 'pre-season' before returning — but we have to be carful with Dimitri Payet too. Perhaps we should give him a few more run-outs as sub before he returns to the starting line-up.

Lanzini and Moses crocked

Will the last fit player left at Chadwell Heath please turn out the lights? More bad news from the treatment room: Manuel Lanzini is out for six weeks with a thigh injury sustained in training and Victor Moses, who pulled up in the first half at at Old Trafford, could be out for a similar spell. So West Ham now have Payet, Sakho, Lanzini and Moses out, though slightly better news is that Enner Valencia might be in contention for Saturday's match with Stoke.

Still, it's a big opportunity for the likes of Carroll, Song, Zarate, Antonio, Jelavic and Obiang to come in and perform. What is clear is that without Payet and Lanzini we'll lack our main sources of creativity and might have to grind out more results with set-pieces and hopefully some headers from Andy Carroll.

But at least the defence is fit and another possible formation to counter our lack of attackers might be five at the back with Reid, Ogbonna and Tomkins in the middle and Jenkinson and Cresswell as wing-backs. It's a big test of the squad against Stoke now and the important thing is Bilic doesn't allow the team to use the injuries as an excuse for easing up.