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For the first time though this week the manager has spoken about bringing in a new goalkeeper and this can be of no surprise to anyone. Brian Jensen, apart from an odd occasion, has struggled since day one when he gave goals away against Crystal Palace and right now looks anything but an improvement on those dreadful displays from Marlon Beresford and Nik Michopoulos last season.
But nothing has happened and defensively only Arthur comes into the reckoning and surely as a recognised central defender must come into the starting line up in the continued absence of David May.
The bad news regarding May is that after already missing two weeks with a hamstring injury he is now out for at least another three weeks after causing further damage to it when training this week.
So Arthur will come in for either Lee Roche or Graham Branch with surely the captain the favourite to stand down after another dreadful performance at Portman Road.
Elsewhere there is good news with Luke Chadwick back in training after sitting out the Ipswich game as an unchanged sub and if fit surely he will return to the starting eleven and I suspect he could come in at the expense of Ian Moore.
That could leave us with a team something like: Brian Jensen, Dean West, Lee Roche, Arthur Gnohere, Mo Camara, Luke Chadwick, Paul Weller, Richard Chaplow, Gareth Farrelly, Robbie Blake, Delroy Facey. Subs: Graham Branch, Joel Pilkington, Tony Grant, Matt O’Neill, Ian Moore.
West Ham will be boosted by the return from suspension of their two main goal scorers David Connolly and Jermaine Defoe. Both missed the Norwich match on Wednesday night but are back into the squad tomorrow and almost certainly both will start.
New manager Alan Pardew will be there but not in charge, that will be Trevor Brooking’s job for the last time since he took over from the sacked Sinister One.
West Ham are expected to line up: David James, Wayne Quinn, Christian Dailly, Ian Pearce, Tomas Repka, Matthew Etherington, Michael Carrick, Don Hutchison, Rob Lee, Jermaine Defoe, David Connolly. Subs from: Stephen Bywater, Matthew Kilgallon, Anton Ferdinand, Kevin Horlock, Niclas Alexandersson, Richard Garcia, Neil Mellor.