Having just steered his team through the incredibly challenging Christmas and New Year fixtures, culminating in the playing of three games in six days that yielded five points, David Moyes and his West Ham medical team now have the 'luxury' of seven whole days to refresh the squad, attend to 'niggles' and generally recharge the batteries.
Players like Hammers captain Declan Rice played every minute of every game during the congested fixture list, and most definitely looked a little jaded by the final game against Everton. Rice along with the rest of the team will have enjoyed FOUR full days off before returning to training at Rush Green, during their time off the entire Rush Green training facility is being deep cleansed as a Covid-19 precaution, and as result of a certain player breaking the strict regulations in place and not adhering to the protocols that had been established.
These 'heaven sent' seven days will enable 'Mikey' Antonio to ease his dodgy Hammy's back in to life, as well as giving David Moyes time to work on integrating Ben Johnson in to the left wing back berth that is usually occupied by Authur Masuaku.
Moyes, who is usually 'poker faced' when mentioning injuries to his players, has a soft spot for 'king authur' and let the cat out of the bag during his post match 'presser' by saying "we have achieved these recent results without 'Mikey' Antonio and without Authur". By choosing to mention Masuaku just by his first name, Moyes very briefly let his guard down by assuming that the millions watching on TV would know exactly who he was referring to.
So you see, Moyes does have a heart after all, it's just that he very rarely shows it, seven days of work, rest and peace will have him raring to go for the next phase of what could turn out to be a very interesting, and possibly excitng Barclays Premier League. - Ed
