West Ham v Norwich Preview

West Ham invite the Canaries to the London Stadium for the second home game of the season.

They will be looking to put an end to an awful home record in August where the Hammers have lost 7 out of their last 8 Premier League games! Good God!

On the plus side they have won 4 of their last 6 home games. And they haven’t lost in their last seven home fixtures against today’s opponents. In fact, the last time they did lose to Norwich at home was 2-0 in March 1989!

TEAM NEWS

It seems Antonio will miss this one following his hamstring injury in the Carabao Cup game v Newport on Tuesday night.

I’ve read reports in the last few days that he will be out until Christmas and also that he is being assessed prior to the game. So your guess is as good as mine!

As mentioned in my previous blogs, I have torn hamstrings and recovered between 4-6 weeks so I’m going with that.

Also, it appears Hernandez is back in contention following his ruling out for the last two games with a knee injury. I hadn’t even realised! Says a lot about me or about how much he is missed!

PREDICTED LINE UP

I’m not sure there’s very much to change from last weeks Watford line up.

I would like to see Balbuena back in for Ogbonna as I’m sure the majority of Hammers fans would.

Mark Noble showed last week how valuable to the team he is and will no doubt retain his place alongside Rice.

Then we have Anderson and Lanzini who we can’t really leave out.

The other attacking midfield slot will more than likely go to Yarmolenko although @HammersPolls recently asked who should start between him and Snodgrass and I struggled to make my mind up. I would say Yarmolenko is the better all round player but we may need Snodgrass’ work rate and determination.

Haller up front is a certainty.

My line up would be:

I’m not going to get a chance to watch West Ham this weekend as I am playing in a tournament in Dublin.

Also in Dublin this weekend as some of you may or may not know that this weekend is the All Ireland Football Final.

I’m sure most of you have stumbled across a Gaelic Football match on Sky Sports over the last few summers. Well, I’ve managed to bag myself a ticket for Sunday. Let’s just say it’s like trying to get a World Cup Final ticket only harder!

Dublin are taking on Kerry for a historic 5 All Ireland wins in a row. Kerry, the most successful County with 37 titles, are out to stop them.

It’s as big a rivalry as West Ham v Millwall, maybe minus the fighting.

It’s going to be a historic day either way and I’m going to be there with 82,299 other people to witness it.

So the plan is, win the tournament, West Ham win and the All Ireland to be a 1pt victory either way! That’ll definitely be a Carlsberg weekend!

COYI!