West Ham United face off with Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Premier League clash between Tottenham and West Ham is a vitally important one for both teams.
Unfortunately for the Hammers, our old nemesis Chris Kavanagh will be on VAR duty for the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Julen Lopetegui knows how important this game is, after a really slow start to his spell in charge at the London Stadium.
The win against Ipswich Town two weeks ago was crucial, and it provided him and his staff with some much-needed breathing space.
Tottenham will be without Richarlison for the London derby on Saturday, whilst they have numerous other players who are doubts including Wilson Odobert and Heung-min Son.
Now though, West Ham have a major fitness worry on our hands too…
West Ham blow with player absent from training ahead of Tottenham
Lopetegui and his players are in desperate need of a result in north London this weekend.
Spurs away is always a really tough challenge, but we have won at their place three times since 2017 – not a bad record at all.
And with Niclas Fullkrug the only injury doubt, everything is looking good for us right now.
However, West Ham seemingly could have another problem, with one of our key players absent from training.
Lucas Paqueta was nowhere to be seen during a club website video of the training session at Rush Green on Wednesday.
Now, there’s no reason why Paqueta shouldn’t have taken part in West Ham training at Rush Green on Wednesday.
He was banned for Brazil’s clash with Peru in the early hours of Thursday morning, so effectively, he could have returned to East London after Friday’s win over Chile.
The Brazilian obviously has a lot going on in his life right now concerning off-field matters.
However, the 27-year-old was handed some good news on Wednesday, when it emerged that he would only have to testify at an October 30th hearing in response to the betting breach charges levelled against him via video-link, rather than in person.
That means that he won’t have to travel to Brazil between two vitally important Premier League games against Manchester United and Nottingham Forest.
West Ham need Lucas Paqueta to be firing on all cylinders, if we are to achieve a successful 2024/25 campaign.
The fact he was missing from training yesterday when there was no need for him to be is a big concern in my opinion.
Hopefully the West Ham ace is available for the Tottenham clash.
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