Fornals applauds the fans

Team News: Fornals returns for Fulham

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Pablo Fornals returns to West Ham United’s starting XI for Fulham’s trip to London Stadium in the sole change from our last Premier League outing.

The scorer of the winner in our first league win of the season at Villa Park, Fornals replaces Maxwel Cornet, who manager David Moyes confirmed picked up a slight calf injury in the 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend.

Seeking his third goal in eight days, Gianluca Scamacca will lead the attacking line and will be supported by Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paquetá and the Spaniard. With two consecutive clean sheets in all competitions, Craig Dawson retains his place at the heart of defence, where he will be joined by Kurt Zouma, Thilo Kehrer and Aaron Cresswell.

Tomáš Souček, who scored the winner the last time Fulham visited London Stadium in 2020, will partner Declan Rice in the middle of the park, while Łukasz Fabiański retains his place in the Premier League starting XI as the Hammers search for a third consecutive win in eight days.

Pablo Fornals scores at Aston Villa

Fresh from a man-of-the-match performance in the UEFA Europa Conference League, Flynn Downes is part of a strong bench that seats nine of the starters from our 1-0 win over R.S.C Anderlecht last Thursday.

Angelo Ogbonna, who skippered the Hammers for the third time in his career midweek in Belgium, is one of the defensive options on the substitutes' bench alongside Vladimír Coufal, Ben Johnson and Emerson Palmieri.

Michail Antonio, Saïd Benrahma and Manuel Lanzini are also part of the matchday squad should they be required.

West Ham United: Fabiański, Kehrer, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell, Rice (c), Souček, Bowen, Lucas Paquetá, Fornals, Scamacca
Subs: Areola (GK), Ogbonna, Johnson, Coufal, Emerson, Downes, Lanzini, Benrahma, Antonio

Fulham: Leno, Adarabioyo, Ream (c), Robinson, James, Reed, Palhinha, Pereira, De Cordova-Reid, Kebano, Carlos Vinícius
Subs: Rodák, Duffy, Wilson, Cairney, Onomah, Mbabu, Diop, Harris, Godo

Referee: Chris Kavanagh