Dean White

Wed 23 December 2020 14:57, UK

This is part of a regular series from our panel of West Ham Super Fans. Each week, our Super Fans will deliver their verdicts on the biggest talking points and news stories around the London Stadium.

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West Ham will welcome Brighton to the London Stadium on Sunday in their final home match of what has been an encouraging 2020.

David Moyes has helped the Irons avoid relegation, made some very good signings and currently has the club sitting 10th in the Premier League standings and just five points behind the top-four.

West Ham have had some impressive displays this season but their 3-0 defeat away at Chelsea on Monday was one of the most disenchanting performances since the loss to Newcastle on the opening day of the campaign.

Moyes has preferred to start with a back-three for most of this season but Arthur Masuaku’s injury has forced him into reverting back to a back-four in recent weeks. He also opted to hand Mark Noble his first start since the opening day loss to the Magpies ahead of the loss to Chelsea while Said Benrahma was dropped to the bench.

West Ham’s manager has struck a good chord with consistency this season but his changes at Stamford Bridge suggest he either wanted to try and set his team out to be more defensively solid or rest Benrahma ahead of the busy festive period.

But our panel of West Ham Super Fans are now suggesting Moyes should get Benrahma back into the team and drop Noble back the bench after his underwhelming display at Chelsea.

Here is what they had to say:

Bobby (@Bobby27590293)

W David Row (@wdavidrow)

Floyd (@FloydWHU)

Mark Smith (@ironworks68)

Talkin’ West Ham (@TalkinWestHam)

It would be a bit of a shock if Moyes named an unchanged line-up against Brighton because not only did his side lose last time out but also because they play away at Southampton two days later.

We can expect changes but will those changes be as drastic as Talking’ West Ham mentioned? Of course, we want to go back to a back-three because the team was in better form then but handing Ben Johnson a start out of the blue could be risky, as could starting Andriy Yarmolenko up front over Sebastien Haller.

Haller is a figure who splits opinion among Irons supporters because as much as he can provide match-winning moments, he also doesn’t do anywhere near as much work as someone like Michail Antonio.

If Antonio is fit and ready then it would be great to see him start but we don’t see that happening with Moyes taking his time to get the 30-year-old back in the side.

But if we had to predict what changes Moyes will make for the Brighton game, we think Benrahma will replace Noble and Fabian Balbuena might come in for Issa Diop at the back.

Everyone else might stay the same.

In other West Ham news, Frank McAvennie has slammed Sebastien Haller for his performance in the defeat to Chelsea.