Will he, won’t he? Will Sam Allardyce have the courage to blood Ravel Morrison for the first time in a Premier League game? My bet is that he won’t, for the very valid reason that none of our central midfield threesome of Diame, Noble and Nolan deserve to be dropped. Two games in and none of them have had a bad game. Hopefully, the knowledge that Morrison is knocking on the door will spur them on to greater things against Stoke. But I know we all hope that we will see Ravel Morrison at some point during the game.
I can see little case for making many other changes. It’s possible that Razvan Rat could make his Premier League debut too, but to be honest it would be hard on Joey O’Brien. One thing I think we can be sure of is that Ricardo Vaz Te won’t feature at all. Sam Allardyce is clearly furious with him and sent him to train on his own today.
On the wings, it looks as if Joe Cole will miss out to Stewart Downing, with Matt Jarvis on the other wing and Maiga in front of them.
I’m bringing my web designer Russell to the game tomorrow. He has never been to a football match and has no understanding of the game whatsoever. I’ll let you know if he becomes a Hammers convert!