Stoke V West Ham - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.Hughes: FA decision sets precedentStoke manager Mark Hughes feels the Football Association's decision not to charge Garry Monk could have set a dangerous precedent.Swansea boss Monk was asked to explain his comments after calling Stoke winger Victor Moses a cheat for going down under a challenge from Angel Rangel that earned the Potters a penalty in their 2-1 Barclays Premier League victory earlier this month.TV pundit John Hartson apologised for echoing Monk's sentiments but the Swans manager stood by his comments and the FA this week decided to take no further action.Asked if it had set an unwelcome precedent, Hughes said: "I think it may well have doneMaybe that word is allowed to be used by ourselves
It seems to be that the FA's vindicated what was said."Earlier in the same game, Swansea were awarded a penalty by referee Michael Oliver after Ryan Shawcross tussled with Wilfried Bony in the box.The issue has become a major talking point and Stoke are angry that Shawcross has been singled out as the most high-profile offender.Hughes has even relieved his captain of marking duties at set-pieces because of concerns referees are looking to punish him.The Stoke manager said: "We are speaking to people we feel have got an influence and need to be told our feelings about the situation, because we feel quite strongly
That's ongoing."Sometimes you've got to get the message across that we're not going to stand for it and we think it's unfair
I'm sure Ryan will be fine but, if it goes on any longer, then it's detrimental to any player
We need to stop it."Hughes does not feel the standard of refereeing in general is where it needs to be and thinks one improvement would be for potential issues from each game to be looked at straight away.He said: "My view is the whole game needs to be reviewed by the referee and his team immediately after a game rather than waiting a couple of days to see what media outcry there is and then someone who wasn't even at the game is asked to see whether decisions are right or wrong."He then added, in a dig at Mark Clattenburg following his ban this week: "Sometimes they've got pop concerts to go to so maybe that's the reason they don't want to do that."Stoke are looking to get back to winning ways against West Ham on Saturday following back-to-back defeats by Southampton in league and cup.However, the Potters will be without suspended duo Phil Bardsley and Peter Crouch, who Hughes revealed has apologised following his sending off against Southampton in midweek.Sam Allardyce is willing to incur the wrath of West Ham supporters by enforcing winter breaks for his key players.The Hammers have started the season in impressive form and sit fourth after last weekend's 2-1 victory over reigning champions Manchester City.Many of West Ham's new signings have settled into life at Upton Park and have played a part in leading Allardyce's side into the Champions League places.But the 60-year-old is worried a number of those new recruits face burnout during the busy Christmas period when they are used to winter breaks in their previous leagues."The games come so thick and fast you are pushing to get them back when they are not really ready but you have to," he said."The squad still has to be fitter than now going into that period
New players - particularly Enner Valencia, (Diafra) Sakho, (Cheikhou) Kouyate, (Mauro) Zarate won't have hit that cauldron of mental and physical output during that particular period
All of those normally have a break."If they fatigue and they need a rest, the rest of the squad has to be fit for us to give them that rest."Allardyce insisted he would have no qualms following in the footsteps of former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson in giving players a break to maintain their peak fitness as the games stack up."I remember speaking to Alex many years ago about the fact he used to send players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani away at Christmas: 'Off you go, go away for a week, back to Portugal, have a rest'," he said."They were finding it difficult to cope with that period so he gave them a rest and then brought them back in and they kick on."If we leave them out, we leave them out
You know, all you lot say 'why should he leave him out, it's a disgrace leaving him out when he's playing so well'."It's not your decision, it's mine and I do the job properly because I know what I'm doing."If you take Enner Valencia's load, for instance, he goes to Mexico and is an outstanding success, plays a lot of games, scores 18 goals, he plays internationals, breaks into the international team."He trains with the international squad, plays international friendlies before the World Cup, plays the World Cup, has a few weeks off, comes to England for the first time, has a late pre-season, gets in the team, stays in the team and between that he's gone and played four games back in South America."Sakho will be assessed as late as Saturday morning as Allardyce gives the striker as much time as possible to prove his fitness.The in-form forward injured a shoulder in the win over Manchester City and it remains to be seen if he is risked at the Britannia Stadium despite scoring six goals in as many Premier League starts.James Tomkins and Matt Jarvis return to the squad after both recovered from thigh injuries but Guy Demel remains sidelined with Mauro Zarate (thigh) a doubt and Andy Carroll not in contention despite returning to training following ankle surgery
Source : PA
Source: PA