I figured this match was worth doing a very quick preview for since there’s one or two interesting factors at play.

James Collins and Nigel Reo-Coker return to their old club, one more welcome back than the other I feel. Hopefully both players will remind the home fans what they’re missing. For me, Collins has been a revelation and perhaps he is even surprising one or two Hammer fans with his performances now he’s in a real Claret and Blue shirt.

Secondly, Reo-Coker may actually start as MON has some forced selection decisions on his hands. Cuellar’s unfortunate dismissal at Goodison on Saturday means that he’s suspended. Both Luke Young and Habib Beye should be available so it will be very interesting to see who MON favours, assuming he actually favours playing one of his right backs there. Whoever plays, if they put in a shift, they may well then keep Cuellar out the starting XI.

In midfield, both Petrov and Milner picked up knocks at Goodison and are doubts. In fact, Milner apparently went into the Everton match carrying a slight injury, so it would probably be prudent to rest him even if he is passed fit.

So that’s possibly three forced changes for a game that offers the opportunity to leap into fourth place in the table. Taking nothing for granted, West Ham are not in a good place right now. With players hopefully coming in with something to prove and so much on offer, I can’t be alone in being optimistic about coming away from London with the goods. Can I?

In a way, I also hope that Petrov and Milner are not available as I’d quite like to see a combination of Ash, Sidwell, Reo-Coker and Delph, possibly with Gabby playing a right wing forward role. I’d be happy to see Albrighton get a decent run out too, although it might be naive to expect him to look as strong in the cold light of Premiership day as he did during pre-season Peace Cup duty.

It’s nice to have the options. It’s even nicer to see them utilized now and then.

I should be around to do the odd match update on Twitter, so if you’re not following yet, seriously, what’s up?