West Ham face a striker crisis after their scoreless draw against Aston Villa Sam Allardyce's problems began when he was told club record signing Andy Carroll would miss the first half of the season after injuring a foot in training. The West Ham manager tried everything on the last day of the window to bring in a replacement on loan, but he saw moves for Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba and Nicklas Bendtner fall through. He has since re-signed Carlton Cole on a short-term deal and brought in former Fulham forward Mladen Petric on a one-year contract, but both players are working their way back to full fitness and have yet to start a game Allardyce has challenged the duo to get off the mark as quickly as possible and stop him going back into the market for another forward when the transfer window reopens in January.Ba appears to be the most viable option for West Ham in a loan move until the end of the season and he could well choose to leave Stamford Bridge if he is still struggling to make the first team. Allardyce said: "I tried to buy another striker before we started the season but we didn't have enough money at the time. We tried to get loan strikers in but failed. We will have to try again depending how Carlton and Mladen go before the end of January. If they come good and Andy gets back there will be no need.  Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert also has scoring problems with his side going 375 minutes without a goal. He lost Fabian Delph to illness in the game's build-up and Gabriel Agbonlahor was ruled out with an ankle injury, Lambert believes Villa can turn their season around when he has a fully fit squad. Christian Benteke came the closest to scoring after when his header hit the bar.