Team News: Moyes makes four changes, Antonio returns

David Moyes has made four changes to his West Ham United team for the Boxing Day Premier League fixture with Southampton.

Łukasz Fabiański, Vladimír Coufal, Pablo Fornals and Saïd Benrahma return, with Alphonse Areola, Harrison Ashby, Ben Johnson and Manuel Lanzini all dropping to the substitutes’ bench after starting Wednesday’s Carabao Cup fifth-round defeat at Tottenham Hotspur.

Michail Antonio returns to the squad after missing the trip to Spurs following a positive COVID test and is also named among the nine potential replacements.

Fabiański starts in goal and is now just three short of 300 Premier League appearances – more than twice as many as any other Polish player.

Coufal returns after a one-match suspension at right-back, with Craig Dawson and Issa Diop continuing their partnership in the centre in the absence of the injured Kurt Zouma and Issa Diop. Arthur Masuaku is at left-back.

Ahead of them, captain Declan Rice and Tomáš Souček start together in central midfield, maintaining their ever-present records.

Fornals continues his run of appearing in every single first-team match this season – 27 out of 27, with this being his 18th start – with Algerian Benrahma and Croatia international Nikola Vlašić alongside him in attacking midfield.

Jarrod Bowen starts up front, having scored an outstanding goal in Wednesday’s defeat in north London.

 

West Ham United: Fabiański, Coufal, Dawson, Diop, Masuaku, Rice ©️, Souček, Fornals, Benrahma, Vlašić, Bowen
Subs: Areola (GK), Fredericks, Ashby, Johnson, Lanzini, Noble, Král, Yarmolenko, Antonio

 

Referee: Kevin Friend