West Ham United travel to Craven Cottage to take on Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
After a fantastic summer of spending at the London Stadium, new manager Julen Lopetegui has struggled to get his West Ham team playing the way that he wants in the Premier League so far this season.
Lopetegui made some great signings for the Hammers in the summer, bringing in nine new faces over the past couple of months.
And it has been claimed that the Spaniard is still in the market to bring in at least one more signing on a free transfer.
All of that is mightily positive. The poor performances we’ve seen at times this season haven’t been great, but there have still been positives to take from them.
A win against Fulham would put us right on track.
However, an injury problem has come to light for the Hammers ahead of the clash with Fulham.
West Ham player ruled out of Fulham Premier League clash
The Hammers desperately need all three points against Fulham this weekend.
If we manage that, it will be a decent return of six points from our first four Premier League games.
However, Lopetegui will be unable to call upon one player in particular.
According to injury expert Ben Dinnery, writing for Premier Injuries, Hammers left-back Aaron Cresswell will not be part of the squad for the Fulham clash this weekend.
The 34-year-old sustained a hamstring injury during the warm-up ahead of our Carabao Cup tie against Bournemouth last month.
Hamstring injuries have a wide range of recovery times, depending on the severity of the tear. Players could return within three weeks from a grade 1 injury, but could be out for up to 3/4 months with a grade three problem.
It will obviously not be the end of the world not having Cresswell available for the game against Fulham, or even the matches following the clash with the Cottagers.
He’s not a regular starter after all right?
However, Emerson may well have to play every game during what is a really busy period now, and what happens if the 30-year-old gets injured?
West Ham should have signed a left-back in the summer
Lopetegui improved the squad at the London Stadium beyond all comprehension in the summer transfer window.
However, he clearly had one very big blindspot.
The Spaniard should have signed a top-class left-back in the summer to really push Emerson Palmieri this season, there’s no question in my mind about that.
The only cover the Italy international has is Aaron Cresswell – a player who West Ham will now not be able to call upon for a while due to injury.
There is a real danger that the former Chelsea man will become far too comfortable and complacent that his place in the team is not under threat.
More worrying than that though, Emerson could easily get burnt out this season as a result of playing too many games.
And if that does happen, Lopetegui will be to blame for his failure to bring in a young left-back who could compete with and provide competition for the Italian ace.
