West Ham vs Chelsea West Ham defender Winston Reid has undergone ankle surgery and is expected to be a long-term absentee. Razvan Rat is a doubt with a hamstring injury he sustained on international duty with Romania, but Joey OBrien and James Collins should be fit. Chelsea forward Fernando Torres is not quite ready to return from an adductor muscle injury. Ashley Cole will play despite sitting out Englands matches with the recurrence of a rib injury. MATCH PREVIEW England need more skill, pace and match-winning trickery in midfield. That much is clear from the back-to-back Wembley defeats. West Hams Ravel Morrison should use spotlight matches like this to stake his claim for a place on the plane to Rio. Now that hes shrugging off the tag of trouble-maker under the watchful eye of Sam Allardyce and a new mentor in Kevin Nolan, the 20-year-old is showing the sort of creativity that once had Sir Alex Ferguson drooling. I think theres still one midfield spot in Roy Hodgsons squad yet accounted for. Morrison has a lot to do, but his five goals this season have a stamp of class. If he can get his head right, he could be a terrific player. LAWROS PREDICTION Image of Mark Lawrenson Mark Lawrenson Football analyst Hammers boss Sam Allardyce will have had the flip-chart out again this week to put together a game-plan to get one over the Blues. I think that will mainly come down to them trying to deny Chelsea any space and they will be defending deep and looking to hit the Blues on the break. Read Lawros full prediction and score Chelseas Frank Lampard might be looking over his shoulder at the rise of Morrison. He struggled against Chile. Critics will say the years are catching up with him fast, especially as hes suffering his worst Premier League scoring drought in a decade. This is the start of a run of five winnable games for Chelsea against modest opposition prior to visiting Arsenal on 23 December. So far theyve picked up the same number of points under Jose Mourinho as they did in Rafa Benitezs first 11 games in charge. Imagine the boos he would have had! But, for the moment, Jose can still do no wrong. West Ham also need to hit immediate targets - six points at least from the next three home games. They have the worst current home form in the division. Theyve struggled to score. The win at Spurs and the Capital One Cup run have camouflaged a disturbing slump. Six points from nine games is relegation form. This week they unveiled computer images of what football will look like in the Olympic Stadium when they move. They cant afford to go there in the Championship. MATCH FACTS Head-to-head This is the 100th meeting of the clubs in all competitions. Chelsea have won 44 times, West Ham 37 and there have been 18 draws. West Ham beat Chelsea for the first time in 13 league matches in the corresponding fixture last season. However, Chelsea were then 2-0 winners at Stamford Bridge. West Ham boss Sam Allardyce has picked up just two points in his previous six top-flight meetings with Jose Mourinho, losing all three home games. West Ham West Ham are without a win in their last four home games in the league (D1, L3 D1), their worst run under Sam Allardyce. They have failed to score in six of their 11 league matches this season. Their only league victory since the opening day of the season was by 3-0 at Tottenham. This is the start of three successive London derbies for the Hammers, with Fulham at home and Palace away to come. Chelsea They have just six points from six games against teams in the top half of the table going into the start of the weekends matches. Frank Lampard has scored in three of his last four Premier League appearances against his former club West Ham, but the England midfielder has failed to score in 10 successive league games - his longest run without a goal in the Premier League since April-August 2003. Chelsea are unbeaten in their last six London derbies in the league (W4, D2). bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24968970
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 14:36:42 +0000
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