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West Ham United are to host Chelsea at the London Stadium on Sunday. The visitors will arrive full of confidence having maintained a 100% record in this new Premier League season so far.
With the likes of Eden Hazard, Willian and Pedro in such scintillating form, the Hammers will have their work cut out in keeping the Blues at bay.
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In order to stand any chance of coming away from this match with a positive result, the home defence must perform superbly, and crucially, Manuel Pellegrini has to be spot on with his starting XI selections.
To that end, Ryan Fredericks must be brought in to replace Pablo Zabaleta as the starting right-back for this match. The 25-year-old’s pace and energy will give the Hammers a much greater chance of stopping Hazard than Zabaleta could.
The 33-year-old has been a fine defender throughout his career, but the last match against Everton highlighted the deficiencies creeping into his game. Chelsea’s attackers would be far more ruthless in exploiting this weakness than the Toffees were. In Fredericks, though, the East London club have a defender better physically equipped to deal with the Chelsea threat.
When we asked West Ham fans whether they agreed that Fredericks should start against Chelsea, 61% said yes. However, a sizeable 39% remained loyal to Zabaleta. See the full results below.
