West Ham United will play hosts to Chelsea in the Premier League as part of the early kick-off on Saturday. The Hammers currently find themselves in 19th place in the league standings and are in dire need of three points. There were a lot of promising signs for the Hammers’ fans in their performance against league leaders, Manchester City last weekend. They defended valiantly but succumbed to a David Silva strike in the last quarter of the game.
It doesn’t get much easier for David Moyes’ men as they now look to take on another one of the title challengers, Chelsea in what is expected to be a lob-sided London derby. The Blues secured a hard-fought victory in their last visit to the London stadium earlier this year. David Moyes needs to pull off an upset on Saturday with his side facing the possibility of relegation from the Premier League.
The West Ham boss is expected to line-up in a defensive 5-4-1 formation. Moyes might be in for a selection dilemma on who to start in goal following Adrian’s impressive display against Manchester City.
5-4-1 Predicted West Ham United Line-Up To Face Chelsea
Defence
Joe Hart should come back into the starting eleven after being ineligible for the match against Manchester City. Although, David Moyes may opt for Adrian as well.
The back five is likely to include Angelo Ogbonna, Winston Reid, and Aaron Cresswell as central defenders while Arthur Masuaku and Pablo Zabaleta take up the full-back roles.
The Hammers’ defence has conceded a league-high 32 goals in 15 Premier League matches so far this season. It would require a monumental effort from them to keep the Chelsea attackers which will feature the likes of Eden Hazard and Alvaro Morata at bay.
Midfield
David Moyes is expected to choose Pedro Obiang and Edimilson Fernandes as his holding midfielders while Manuel Lanzini will feature from the left flank and Michail Antonio from the right.
The match will be won and lost in the centre of the park and it will up to these four players to raise their games in an effort to stand toe to toe with the Chelsea midfield.
Both Lanzini and Antonio will be responsible to link up with Diafra Sakho in the final third.
Attack
Diafra Sakho will presumingly get the nod ahead of Javier Hernandez who will be in a race against time to be fit for the clash. The Senegalese striker will be expected to lead the lines for West Ham against the strong Chelsea defence. The forward needs to put in a tireless performance on Saturday with the Hammers struggling to score enough goals this season.
