West Ham United managed to steal a point from Leicester City’s trip to the London Stadium at the weekend but they are still far from where they would want to finish, come the end of the season. David Moyes, who succeeded Slaven Bilic at the helm, has not yet implemented his strategies on the side and will not have too much time on the training ground, with Premier League fixtures coming thick and fast in the next few weeks.
The manager needs all his players to be at their best and will need the injury issues to ease out and the return of two first-team stars in Andre Ayew and Marko Arnautovic, to the first team, will have given the manager a huge sigh of relief.
Both players were expected to add flair, creativity and goals to the West Ham squad this season but have not shown any consistency, picking up injuries on more than one occasion.
In seven starts for the side, the former Stoke City attacker made is yet to score a goal or pick up an assist while Ayew, who has made six starts, has two goals and two assists to his name. Both players are good fits for the style of play at the club and have huge roles to play if West Ham are to finish the season on a respectable note.
Both players were back to training earlier last week and were available for selection for the game against the Foxes. Moyes decided to go with Arnautovic in his starting XI, playing on the right side of attack.
He failed to have enough impact for West Ham to blow Leicester away but he certainly added a bit of strength and creativity to the squad in the final third. He is a player who loves to make a nuisance of himself and the Foxes almost gave in to him, giving him unnecessary fouls on more than one occasion.
He was replaced by Ayew, who was also returning from injury. The Ghana international got just over 20 minutes of football where he took two shots and made a successful dribble, late in the game, to keep the pressure on the visitors in that game.
Arnautovic had three successful take ons in that game and showed what West Ham were missing the last few weeks. Both players are versatile and can lead the attack along but are effective on the wing, adding dynamism and options to the West Ham squad.
The Hammers play Everton, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal in the next four games in that order and will need all the best players in the squad fit and available to play. So Ayew and Arnautovic have come back from injury at just the right time, as West Ham can now atleast hope for a positive result in any of these games.
