West Ham United are currently preparing for their second London derby in eight days when they take on Tottenham Hotspur at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers go into the game off the back of a 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Saturday, coming from behind to earn a point against the Blues at the London Stadium.
Ahead of Sunday’s game, here are four things we spotted from the Hammers’ latest training video, posted on the club’s official YouTube account .
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Alphonse Areola returns
French goalkeeper Alphonse Areola has missed the last two matches with a hamstring issue.
Areola was absent for the trip to Newcastle United at the start of the month and also missed Saturday’s draw with Chelsea, with Joseph Anang and academy stopper Krisztian Hegyi named in his place.
After being shown in pictures from training on Monday, Areola has now been videoed in training, which presents a boost considering West Ham’s issues with availability at present.
Levi Laing’s involvement
Teenage centre-back Levi Laing was named on the bench for last month’s FA Cup fourth round win away at Derby County last month and this week has been pictured in training.
Laing was one of several players from the club’s academy training with the first-team last week, but was the only academy player shown in the latest footage.
With left-back Aaron Cresswell (virus) and centre-back Kurt Zouma (thigh) both currently sidelined, Laing’s presence will no doubt be needed to boost numbers.
Eight players absent
Of West Ham’s 23-man senior squad, just 15 were shown in training. Six are known absentees, but the other two remain unknown.
Midfielders Declan Rice and Pablo Fornals were not shown training with the main group. Rice did play through the draw with Chelsea with a virus.
The same virus led to Cresswell missing the draw with the Blues. He was one of six first-team players known to be ill or injured at present. Zouma, Nayef Aguerd (groin), Gianluca Scamacca (knee), Lucas Paqueta (shoulder) and Maxwel Cornet (calf) were also not shown.
Angelo Ogbonna’s scorpion kick
During the training session, the group split into smaller teams for a small-sided games drill, without goalkeepers, shooting into mini goals.
In the drill, winger Jarrod Bowen skipped past teenager Laing before shooting. Experienced centre-back Angelo Ogbonna dived across the floor and produced a brilliant block to deny Bowen.
Bowen then tried to chip the ball over a grounded Ogbonna, who denied the effort with a sensational scorpion kick, reminiscent of former Colombia goalkeeper Rene Higuita during a 1995 match against England at Wembley.
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