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West Ham: Fabianski, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Coufal, Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Benrahma, Bowen, Haller Subs: Randolph, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Snodgrass, Dawson, Noble, Fredericks
Palace: Guaita, Ward, Van Aanholt, Dann, Kouyate, McArthur, Townsend, Milivojevic, Eze, Zaha, Benteke Subs: Butland, Tomkins, Ayew, Schlupp, Batshuayi, Mitchell, Riedewald

Ex-Hammers manager Slaven Billic has been sacked by West Bromwich Albion, after 18 months in charge, with the club 19th in the Premier League. The Baggies have only gathered seven points from 13 league games, with eight defeats, though they earned a surprise 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Tuesday. Billic is the first coach to be sacked so far in the Barclays Premier League this season.

One man's loss, another's gain, after being starved of success, French clubs had hoped they would be revitalised by an unprecedented TV rights deal worth more than €1.15bn per year (€814m a year from Mediapro and €330m from BeIN Sports). It was the second largest TV deal in Europe, but hopes finally disappeared this week, pushing French football to the brink of financial ruin.

Without wishing to put a dampener on fans' current 'euphoria', which has been brought about by a string of superb results, it is hard to avoid the 'Elephant in the Room' in fact a couple of them! The injuries that Michail Antonio and Authur Masuaku have sustained have exposed just how dangerously wafer thin David Moyes' squad actually is, however that is not to pour scorn over how well the manager has adapted to the loss of two key players.

Many Hammers fans were aghast when news of Authur Masuaku's knee operation became known, incidentally the news first broke on this site fully half an hour before fellow fans' site KUMB.com, whereas Sullivan's pet site C&H as usual got their facts wrong and stated that the news had first appeared on Graham Howlett's wonderful site.

Leeds: Meslier, Ayling, Cooper, Alioski, Raphinha, Dallas, Phillips, Harrison, Klich, Rodrigo, Bamford Subs: Casilla, Poveda, Roberts, Costa, Hernandez, Strujik, Shackleton
West Ham: Fabianski, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Coufal, Rice, Soucek, Fornals, Benrahma, Bowen, Haller Subs: Randolph, Lanzini, Snodgrass, Dawson, Noble, Fredericks, Johnson

Now that their elongated domestic season is over, MLS sides have to go through a process which involves naming 'Designated' players, there are strict rules governing the amount of non-US players and clubs have to keep within very tight FFP rules. Sporting KC had acquired West Ham United's Winston Reid on loan for the season, but crucially were only paying 15% of his £70,000 per week wages, with the Irons picking up the rest of the tab.

Following his appointment in May 2018, Manuel Pellegrini was handed a sizeable transfer kitty and the experienced Chilean was tasked with bringing European football back to East London. However, despite some initial promise, and a highly productive December, the former Manchester City boss could only guide the Hammers to a tenth place finish. He made several high-profile signings during the course of the campaign, and we take a look at the progress that some of these recruits have made since first arriving at the London Stadium.

Issa Diop

Hammers' wing back Authur Masuaku's now deleted instagram message, detailing how he had just had corrective surgery on his knee that had caused him to be in acute pain for the last TWO years, was as a result of 'miscommunication'. When David Moyes did his Press conference ahead of tonight's eagerly anticipated clash with Leeds United at Elland Road, he made no mention at all regarding Masuaku's operation, which has left many observers baffled.

Hammers wing back Authur Mauaku has just undergone surgery on his troublesome knee, having played through the pain barrier in recent weeks "King Authur' finally decided to go under the knife. Masuaku had been forced to withdraw from his International duties during the break, and it had been hoped that the injury could be managed, unfortunately the troublesome knee was the recipient of a 'robust' tackle from a Manchester player during last week's 1-3 home defeat.