West Ham are expected to make a few changes for their third round Carabao Cup trip to Oxford United on Wednesday night at the Kassam Stadium.
The Hammers made it through to this stage after seeing off a potential banana skin in the form of Newport County as the Premier League side beat the League Two team 2-0 at Rodney Parade thanks to goals from Jack Wilshere and Pablo Fornals.
Oxford are comfortably sitting mid-table in League One but come into the game off of a fantastic result at the weekend, smashing six unanswered goals away from home against Lincoln City. West Ham had a fantastic result of their own on Sunday after beating Manchester United 2-0 at London Stadium with the utmost ease.
Pellegrini will rest some of his stars ahead of the game against Bournemouth in the Premier League on Saturday where they will be looking to stretch their five-match unbeaten run. But he's still expected to name a strong team.
The fringe players who have struggled for game time in the league should get a chance to shine on Wednesday so what are the options the manager has available at his disposal?
Goalkeeper
Roberto is likely to be given the nod in goal to give Lukasz Fabianski a night off. Roberto played well down at Newport after not initially impressing during pre-season and is set to be the cup keeper for the season unless the Hammers reach the latter stages of competitions.
Defence
Ryan Fredericks picked up a knock at the weekend but wasn't likely to feature on Wednesday so Pablo Zabaleta will step into the breach and probably skipper the side as well.
In central defence, Winston Reid is still unavailable so one of the first choice pair of Issa Diop or Angelo Ogbonna will play alongside the recalled Fabian Balbuena. It's still too son for youngster Goncalo Cardoso, who has just a handful of U23 appearances to his name so far this season.
Over on the left, Pellegrini has a decision to make. Aaron Cresswell impressed when replacing the suspended Arthur Masuaku on Sunday and it's likely that whoever plays against Oxford, won't make the cut on Saturday at Bournemouth. Both left backs are available for selection on Wednesday.
Midfield
Declan Rice will get the evening off and be replaced by Carlos Sanchez as the understudy gets more Carabao minutes. Other midfielders who should feature will be Robert Snodgrass and Jack Wilshere, who have found themselves lacking minutes in the Premier League.
Mark Noble should too get a rest and the manager will want to give the night off to either Andriy Yarmolenko or Felipe Anderson, but ideally both. Thanks to Michail Antonio's injury however his options are a bit limited in wide areas.
He could remedy that by handing a first team start to U23 winger Nathan Holland who has been going great guns for Dmitri Halajko's young side, while midfielder Connor Coventry could also be involved. He came on for a brief cameo against Newport last month but the form of Holland could see him make the step up first.
Pellegrini is taking the cup competitions seriously this season so whether he is prepared to throw in some youngsters from the start remains to be seen. Pablo Fornals could probably see some minutes too as he still gets up to speed with the English game.
Striker
Albian Ajeti is more than likely to get the 90 minutes at the Kassam having only played in the Carabao Cup so far this season. He's been involved in five of the six matchday squads in the Premier League but has yet to get off the bench.
Sebastien Haller will be rested but probably be in the squad in case of absolute emergency.
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