Preview: No injury worries for West Ham before Burnley challenge

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Alex Pearce looks ahead to the weekend action in the Premier League…

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce can select from a full squad for their away trip to Burnley on Saturday. The Hammers have no new injury worries from the international break with Enner Valencia expected to play despite only arriving back from a friendly in the USA a couple of days ago.

Allardyce has overseen an impressive start to the season as West Ham currently sit seventh in the table. They went into the international break on the back of a comprehensive 2-0 win over QPR and are looking for back-to-back wins for the first time since March.

New signings such as Aaron Cresswell, Alex Song and Diafra Sakho have settled in straight away with Sakho already netting four times in the Barclays Premier League this season.

Stewart Downing has been superb having moved into a new position at the top of the diamond in midfield. This has seen the 30-year-old getting onto the ball more often and he is reaping the rewards having created as many goal-scoring chances (22) for his team as Cesc Fabregas.

Burnley on the other hand have found things tough since achieving promotion last season. They are the only side left in the league who have not won but they did at least go into the international break on a high after a last-minute equaliser against Leicester.

Manager Sean Dyche has had some good news in the return of a number of players from injury. Kieran Trippier, David Jones, Nathaniel Chalobah and Danny Ings are all available for selection at Turf Moor tomorrow. But it is the news that Ings is back that is the biggest boost for the Clarets.

He was their top scorer last year scoring 26 goals in all competitions. And it is in scoring goals which has been Burnley’s problem this season. They have only found the net three times in their seven league games so far and considering they have kept three clean sheets in that time they have missed out on some wins for the taking.

Stats

Burnley: Burnley’s last two league matches at home have ended goalless. They have never had three consecutive scoreless draws at home in the top flight.

West Ham: Mark Noble currently has 199 Premier League appearances for West Ham; the record is held by Steve Potts with 203.

View from Burnley: “It was obviously nice having gone into the break having got the last-gasp equaliser. It’s always nice to go in on a more positive note.” Burnley striker Lukas Jutkiewicz.

View from West Ham: “They will tell their lads that we are southern softies who won’t want it and that we’ll be coming up there to a small wooden dressing room and all be moaning and getting on each other’s nerves.” First-team attacking coach Teddy Sheringham.

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