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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tom Clark

West Ham team confirmed vs Leicester as Declan Rice, Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio start

David Moyes has named an unchanged starting XI to take on Leicester City after his team's thrilling 4-2 win over Newcastle United last weekend.

There were question marks over the defence during the victory but Moyes has retained faith in his backline and opted against bringing Issa Diop into central defence.

Arthur Masuaku was back in action with the West Ham U23 side last week but the DR Congo international has not been risked this evening.

Moyes has elected to stick with current number one Lukasz Fabianski over new signing Alphonse Areola, who is once again named on the substitutes bench following his summer arrival from Paris Saint-Germain.

Ahead of Fabianski, Moyes has gone with a back four made up of Vladimir Coufal, Craig Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna and Aaron Cresswell with Ryan Fredericks, Ben Johnson and youngster Jamal Baptise offering cover on the bench if required.

The Hammers are expected to line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek the screen in front of the back four and given the responsibility of driving the Hammers up the pitch.

With club captain Mark Noble named among the replacements, Rice will lead the Hammers out against Brendan Rodgers' side.

Pablo Fornals is expected to start from the left where he has licence to drift inside and swap with Said Benrahma as they share the creative duties for the Hammers. Jarrod Bowen will begin the match on the right looking to get in behind the Leicester City defence.

Benrahma was trusted in the No. 10 role against Newcastle and his return of a goal and an assist was a fine reward for an excellent performance. The Algerian is once again named in the starting XI and will have a lot of responsibility on his shoulders to create opportunities for lone striker Michail Antonio.

The 31-year old forward's powerful strike against Newcastle drew him level with Paolo DI Canio as West Ham's joint all-time Premier League goalscorer with 47 and the striker is keen to take the record all for himself in the near future.

West Ham XI: Fabianski, Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Benrahma Bowen, Antonio

Substitutes: Areola, Diop, Fredericks, Baptiste, Johnson, Noble, Coventry, Lanzini, Yarmolenko

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