BBC Sport pundit Mark Lawrenson believes the return to fitness of West Ham United playmakers Manuel Lanzini and Samir Nasri could be key against Fulham on Friday.
The Cottagers are in deep trouble in the Premier League this season, and Manuel Pellegrini’s side will be looking to worsen their misery at the London Stadium. Lawrenson believe they will do just that with a 2-0 win.
“Manuel Lanzini could make his first appearance of the season for West Ham after a long injury lay-off and another creative player, Samir Nasri, has a chance of being fit too,” he wrote on the BBC Sport website.
“Fulham had a couple of good early chances in their last game, against Manchester United on 9 February, but ended up well beaten. West Ham are inconsistent but, even if they have a bad day, it is hard to make much of a case for a Fulham side who are yet to win on the road in the league this season, and have the worst away record in the Premier League.”
OPINION
West Ham will undoubtedly go into this game as heavy favourites, but this could be a potential banana skin for Pellegrini’s side. Fulham are excellent going forward, they just simply cannot defend. However, the Hammers haven’t defended very well since the turn of the year either and so they could struggle at times in this game. Offensively, though, West Ham should have more than enough to overcome the Cottagers, especially if one or more of Lanzini and Nasri are fit enough to start the game. A fully fit and focused Marko Arnautovic would also be a big help as well. As Lawrenson says, Fulham’s record away from home this campaign is absolutely woeful and that in and of itself makes it difficult to predict that they’ll come out on top here. Having arrested their slump with a couple of draws recently, Pellegrini will be expecting his players to come out on top on Friday.