West Ham manager David Moyes has made two changes to his side to face Tottenham Hotspur in tonight’s London derby.
The headline news is that Jeremy Ngakia has been dropped at right back as the deadline to negotiate a new contract closes in and he is replaced in the team by Ryan Fredericks.
Ngakia has yet to put pen to paper on a contract extension until at least the end of the season or beyond that, with the deadline of midnight tonight to get a deal sorted though football.london understands the teenager will be appearing in his last Hammers squad this evening.
The other change also comes in as Fabian Balbuena starts his first game since the 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United on January 10.
Declan Rice moves back into midfield after playing at the heart of the back four alongside Issa Diop against Wolves. The Frenchman keeps his place in the side for the trip to north London.
In midfield, Tomas Soucek and skipper Mark Noble are in the engine room and they are supplemented by Pablo Fornals, who will hopefully play a bit more centrally than he did against Wanderers when he was ineffective and stuck on the left wing.
Up front, Michail Antonio, who has scored four goals in six appearances against Spurs in his career, leads the line again and his chief support will be Jarrod Bowen, with Fornals expected to pull the strings behind them.
Number one Lukasz Fabianski starts in goal while Aaron Cresswell remains at left back despite his troubles against Wolves, especially after the introduction of speed merchant Adama Traore.
Angelo Ogbonna, Sebastien Haller, Arthur Masuaku and Robert Snodgrass all miss out through inury. Ogbonna is on the bnch and Haller could return for the visit of Chelsea on July 1 but the diagnosis for Masuaku and Snodgrass is longer, with the latter feared to miss the remainder of the campaign.
West Ham: Fabianski; Fredericks, Diop, Balbuena, Cresswell; Rice, Noble, Soucek, Fornals; Bowen, Antonio.
