Lucas Paqueta has been ruled out for up to a month, giving Evan Ferguson the perfect opportunity to step up for West Ham, but it’s bad news for Mohammed Kudus.

Our very own ExWHUEmployee has confirmed today that Lucas Paqueta will miss up to a month of Premier League action. He said: “We can exclusively reveal that Lucas Paqueta’s scan results are back for his rolled ankle. The club have now confirmed that the Brazilian is out for 3-4 weeks.”

Now, this could be seen as a huge dilemma for West Ham because the Brazillian is the player that has impressed and improved the most since Potter replaced Lopetegui at the helm. However, it could be seen as the perfect opportunity for new signing Evan Ferguson to show off his talents.

If everyone was fit, personally, as things stand, I would start Paqueta on the left, Bowen up front, and Kudus on the right. However, with Paqueta’s injury, it will need a shake-up as Cryscensio Sumerville is also injured.

The Hammers only really have three options left to make up the front three. This will be Mohammed Kudus out on the left, Evan Ferguson as the number nine, and Jarrod Bowen in his preferred right-wing position.

It may have taken Ferguson a few more weeks to earn a place from the start before the Paqueta news. However, he will almost certainly be fast-tracked to a start at Arsenal on Saturday. He looked impressive in moments against Brentford where he showed off his power and pace.

However, as good as this news could be for some, for others it’s awful news including manager Graham Potter and one of his star players Mohammed Kudus. The Ghanaian attacker is now almost certain to play on his weak left side for the next few weeks.

When he first started playing out on the left under David Moyes he looked uncomfortable, however, towards the end of the season he got more used to the position and started to contribute to more goals. However, this season he’s taken a step back and hasn’t been able to show anything under Graham Potter as of yet even though he played on the right on multiple occasions.

It’s clear the Ajax man is frustrated playing out of position, and a player of his talent does deserve to be playing in his best position, he’s just very unlucky that he has a player like Jarrod Bowen competing with him for the position. He’s always involved in the game on the left but he’s unable to make a difference when it matters.

For example, he gets in positions on the left where if it was on the other side he would be able to shoot to create a chance for a teammate. He also gets on the end of chances created from the right that are hit across the box onto his right foot, which he would almost certainly score from the other side on his left foot.

It’s clear he’s one of our most talented players but playing in different positions just isn’t working for him. He’s been really poor this season and if Paqueta wasn’t injured he really would be lucky to not drop to the bench, he almost certainly would be on the bench at the Emirates on Saturday if Summerville was fit.