WHZ View: Rice, Antonio & Coufal back – West Ham predicted XI v Palace
West Ham travel to Selhurst Park on Tuesday night for a London derby with Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace.
The Hammers have made their best start ever to a calendar year, winning their first five matches conceding just one goal. They’ll be full of confidence coming off the back of Saturday’s 4-0 win in the FA Cup to Doncaster.
Palace are currently thirteenth in the league with just one win in their last five matches. They’ll be keen to pick up there points at home to avoid slipping down the table into a relegation battle.
Victory will take David Moyes’ side to 35 points after 20 games. They’ll be aiming to continue driving up the table, in search of a top-half finish.
Given the recent results and few injuries, we feel that the starting XI currently picks itself.
Lukasz Fabianski will again start in goal for the Hammers. He played for just over 80 minutes at the weekend and has been in fantastic form this season.
We saw a fully changed backline for our last game, and are expecting wholesale changes once again. Vladimir Coufal and Aaron Cresswell will slot in at full-back, flanking a centre half partnership of Craig Dawson and Angelo Ogbonna.
The two sitting central midfielders will be Tomas Soucek and captain Declan Rice. Soucek is our joint top scorer this season with five goals and scored in the 1-1 draw with Palace at The London Stadium.
On either wing will be the menacing Jarrod Bowen and our Algerian starlet Said Benrahma, the latter is still looking for his first goal for the club.
Pablo Fornals will be rewarded for his excellent display against Doncaster with a start in the number 10 role. The Spaniard has been in and out of the starting XI this season, but we feel he edges Manuel Lanzini to start this one given recent form.
Of course, the spear-head to our attack will be Michail Antonio. Our number 30 is also on five goals this season and will be looking to continue his fantastic start to 2021 with his third goal in as many games.
In other West Ham news, are we contenders for the FA Cup this season?