West Ham United saw their chances of victory over Stoke City this coming Saturday increase on Monday night.
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes and West Ham manager Slaven Bilic
The Hammers take on the Potters at the London Stadium knowing a victory is crucial having slipped down to 17th place following defeat to Everton last time out.
Meanwhile Stoke are fresh from beating Swansea City 3-1 on Monday night and sit 12th in the table.
A win would lift Slaven Bilic’s side above Mark Hughes’ men in the increasingly congested Premier League standings going into the November international break and ahead of a hellish month of fixtures which sees the East Londoners face Spurs, a double header against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Arsenal and Liverpool in a row.
Injury and suspension double impact
That gives the Stoke game added significance in West Ham’s season and their chances of victory have been increased after the visitors saw two of their key players likely ruled out of the game on Monday night.
First Swiss star Xherdan Shaqiri limped off half an hour into the win over the Swans through injury and looks highly unlikely to be able to feature in five days time against the Hammers.
Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri looks dejected after going off injured
The playmaker was injured after a robust challenge from Wales defender Neil Taylor much to the anger of the Stoke fans at the Bet 365 Stadium.
Then with the win all but secured Marko Arnautovic was harshly booked late on for a tackle on Leroy Fer when replays clearly showed he won the ball cleanly.
Stoke City’s Marko Arnautovic picked up a fifth booking and a suspension
It was the Austrian’s fifth booking of the season which rules him out of the trip to West Ham and cannot be appealed.
The Hammers will be missing key defender Winston Reid for the same reason but will be confident of victory given the double blow to Stoke.
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