Antonio on great journey
Allardyce, whose 23-man party meets up at St George’s Park today.
He said: “In the end, a decision had to be made and it will be open for debate – more so than ever because I am now in the hot seat.
“The whole nation is watching me for next week and, hopefully, we have made the right choices.
“Everybody – Jack Wilshere, Alex OxladeChamberlain, who was probably looking to get back in – we will continue to monitor and watch.
“We will keep an eye on them and who is to say this will be the squad next time around?”
Antonio, 26, has never played representative football at any level for England and moved to West Ham last summer from Nottingham Forest.
He has scored in his past two matches and was listed as a midfielder by England. West Ham have played him at right-back, including at the Etihad yesterday, where he has struggled at times.
“He’s in outstanding form,” said Allardyce. “This is another lad with a great journey – it’s a fantastic journey that he’s been on, from non-League to now an international call-up.
“He scored nine goals in his first season and he’s a terrific athlete, a good crosser and a goalscorer.
“I’m looking forward to him coming, and looking forward to meeting everybody. Hopefully we will have a good few days’ preparation and get to know each other on the basis of trying to go and win in Slovakia.”
Allardyce recalled Everton captain Phil Jagielka, who was axed for Euro 2016 by Roy Hodgson, while Ryan Bertrand missed out through injury. MAN CITY WEST HAM PEP GUARDIOLA’S first month in charge of Manchester City could not have gone much better.
Five wins, 15 goals, through to the Champions League group stages, top of the Premier League table and encouraging signs that his players are quickly grasping his philosophy.
Add to that the continued rejuvenation of Raheem Sterling, who maintained his impressive start to the season with his first goals since March.
But yesterday’s win over West Ham left him with one major worry: Sergio Aguero is facing a retrospective red card from the FA for violent conduct after elbowing Winston Reid in an incident missed by referee Andre Marriner.
That would rule him out for three games, the first of which is when he renews his rivalry with Jose Mourinho in the first Manchester derby of the season after the international break.
Something has got to give at Old Trafford on September 10 because both teams have made 100 per cent starts, with City on top thanks to more goals scored than either Chelsea or United.
Players have to be ultra-fit to meet Guardiola’s demands and the City squad are slimmer, faster and hungrier than last season.
And it is little wonder Guardiola is still as stick thin as he was as a player when you consider the calories he must burn with his manic arm-waving as he issues instructions.
But he has to be happy with the start, especially as three of his summer signings – Claudio Bravo, Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane – have yet to play and City will only improve as they get used to the manager. Confidence is oozing from his side and apart from the silky passing and slick movement, what is also evident is how hard they work to win the ball back. Shades of Barcelona.
They ran Slaven Bilic’s injury-hit West Ham side dizzy in the first half and at the break should have had more than the two goals provided by Sterling and Fernandinho.
West Ham refused to cave and put themselves back in it when Michail Antonio netted with a header. Bilic will hope Simone Zaza’s arrival from Juventus on a season-long loan will give them more of a goal threat. But City were able to regain their composure and carved out enough chances to have put the game to bed long before Sterling rolled in a cheeky second goal in added time. The Hammers’ hopes of repeating last season’s win at the Etihad had been shattered after seven minutes. John Stones dropped into midfield to set David Silva on a surging run before playing a pass inside Antonio for Nolito to cut the ball back for Sterling to score with a clinical finish.
City showed they can score from set-pieces as well, Antonio has headed more goals (eight) in the Premier League than any other player since the start of last season Fernandinho doing so with an unchallenged header form Kevin De Bruyne’s free-kick after 18 minutes.
Guardiola’s demand for attacking moves to start from the keeper nearly resulted in an early contender for goal of the season.
Willy Cabellero, Pablo Zabaleta, De Bruyne and Nolito were all involved in a pitch-length move that cut the Hammers apart, but De Bruyne’s shot was deflected wide as the crowd were set to acclaim a third goal. West