West Ham's Avram Grant to decide next week on Yom Kippur absence

Avram Grant will decide next week whether he will observe Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day, and so miss West Ham United's league visit to Stoke City on Saturday week. Yom Kippur falls on 17-18 September and involves a 25-hour abstention from eating and working. West Ham have so far lost their opening three Premier League games and face the difficult visit of Chelsea, the champions, on Saturday. This raises the prospect of Grant's team still being pointless and bottom going into the Stoke match. When the Israeli took over from José Mourinho to become Chelsea's manager in September 2007 the team's first match was at Old Trafford against Manchester United, who were then the champions. Grant observed Yom Kippur and flew to the game by helicopter to be on the bench. While Grant will take the decision next week, it is understood that if he does observe the holy day and is not in the dugout at Britannia Stadium he will ensure the team is prepared particularly meticulously. Julien Faubert, West Ham's full-back, has said he has no fear of West Ham's difficult upcoming fixtures, which also include playing Tottenham Hotspur the week following Stoke. He told whufc.com: "I think this is why we are football players – to play in games like this. We have this game, then Stoke and Tottenham as well. They are also two big games. We don't have to be scared of this game because we play football for this. We can enjoy it but we have to die on the pitch. We have the fans behind us so we have to try our best. "If it's Chelsea or not Chelsea, we have to create something and we have to do something on the pitch. We have chances in every game if we believe. "I think we can score. We have had opportunities to score but we have missed chances and it makes it hard. If we defend all the game it is hard as well, so we have to play, to be confident and try to score. If we can score, I think we can keep the lead. That's what we have to do. We have to believe before the game and not lose the game before we play. I think we have to believe, even though we know they are a big team."