West Ham welcome Leicester City to the London Stadium in an important game for both clubs and there have been two big announcements.
The Premier League season is about to enter the final run-in.
West Ham will take on Leicester City a game with big ramifications in the battle against relegation.
The Hammers are looking to build on the magnificent win at Arsenal by showing it was not another false dawn.
West Ham have never been truly concerned about the possibility of relegation.
But victory over the Foxes would create a 16-point gap between the two sides and Graham Potter can start planning ahead for next season in the top flight.
Leicester meanwhile need every point they can get in what now looks a three-way battle with Wolves and Ipswich for 17th place.
So there is a lot riding on the match.
Ironically West Ham handed Leicester one of their four victories this season in the reverse fixture back in December.
Ruud van Nistelrooy’s side won 3-1 at the King Power, a game which saw West Ham fans turn on Julen Lopetegui – who would be sacked a month later.
The Foxes actually have a decent record against West Ham in the Premier League.
Leicester have beaten the Hammers in their last three Prem meetings and haven’t lost to the east Londoners since August 2021.
West Ham have only won four of the last 19 meetings between the clubs, which includes 18 Premier League matches and a League Cup tie.
So the visitors will have some confidence against a West Ham side whose fans will be expecting nothing other than a comfortable win.
Now two sudden major announcements have dropped on the eve of West Ham’s clash with Leicester.
Two major announcements for West Ham clash with Leicester
For reasons unknown there has been a late change of referee for the big match.
Stuart Attwell was meant to be taking charge of the game.
That was just weeks after he angered West Ham fans by failing to give a clear foul on Jarrod Bowen just before Chelsea scored in harsh 2-1 defeat for the Hammers at Stamford Bridge.
However, it has now been announced that Attwell is not officiating the match.
He has been replaced instead by Anthony Taylor.
West Ham have confirmed Taylor has been drafted in as a late replacement for Attwell for the Leicester game.
The last time Taylor oversaw a West Ham match was the 5-0 hammering to Liverpool at the end of December.
That is not the only announcement of interest to both clubs ahead of the game.
Referee change for Hammers vs Foxes and strikes update
The Premier League meeting at the London Stadium was facing potential travel chaos.
A pay dispute involving train drivers on London’s Elizabeth Line – which brings the vast majority of fans into Stratford for West Ham matches – saw strikes planned from Thursday.
Members of Aslef were due to stage a series of walkouts starting on the day of the West Ham vs Leicester clash which would have caused travel chaos for supporters and across the capital.
TfL warned there would be “no service” on most of the “Lizzie line” – the busiest railway in the country, with about 770,000 journeys on weekdays – and only a “significantly reduced” service on its eastern section between Liverpool Street and Shenfield.
But it has been announced that the Elizabeth line strikes have been cancelled after a deal was reached raising drivers’ salary to £75,000.
Team news is in for both sides ahead of the clash.
Graham Potter has confirmed both Lucas Paqueta and Vladimir Coufal will be missing for the Irons.
For Leicester, Ricardo Pereira – who has been out since November with a serious hamstring injury – is back training and closing in on a return. James Justin missed Leicester’s 4-0 defeat to Brentford last time out.
Abdul Fatawu, Nathan Opoku and Harry Souttar are all expected to be missing against the Hammers.