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West Ham have given Lucas Paqueta a full debut as he starts in today’s London derby clash with Chelsea.
The record signing made his debut as a substitute against Spurs and now makes his first Hammers start.
“Settling in is always going to be difficult for any players coming in,” Moyes said in his pre-match press conference. “His English is very limited, that is one of the issues we have got at the moment but overall, he’s in, he trained yesterday, we want to get him involved.
“You can see the impact he had but also, we want to be fair and we don’t want to push in someone and expect something special right away. We want to give him the chance to get to know the players, how we play. Getting to know the Premier League is probably the biggest thing.”
Ben Johnson was forced off during last weekend’s victory over Aston Villa with a hamstring problem and missed the midweek draw against Tottenham, and he is absent once again this afternoon.
The academy graduate is expected to be sidelined for a number of weeks and his absence contributed to the club’s decision not to let Craig Dawson or Harrison Ashby leave on deadline day.
Aaron Cresswell has been playing through a groin problem and David Moyes is without the Englishman, meaning Emerson Palmieri starts against his former side.
Gianluca Scamacca, meanwhile, has struggled with a virus since making his first Premier League start at Villa and is not in the squad, with Michail Antonio leading the line once more.
West Ham XI: Fabianski, Coufal, Kehrer, Zouma, Emerson Palmieri, Rice, Soucek, Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Fornals, Antonio.
Subs: Lanzini, Downes, Areola, Cornet, Ogbonna, Benrahma, Coventry, Randolph
