OPINION
West Ham would have not been expecting much, if anything, from their clash with Manchester City over the weekend but to be beaten 4-0 will have still been a big disappointment for Manuel Pellegrini and his men.
The Irons were outclassed in every area, heading into the half time break 3-0 down and an improved second half display meant the final result was only slightly embarrassing.
Still, the Hammers cannot be in any way happy about the way they performed or the eventual scoreline and it seems as though with a crunch clash against Newcastle United up next – a much more winnable fixture – Pellegrini is sharpening his axe.
Football.London claim on their website that a trio of senior stars – Arthur Masuaku, Michail Antonio and Pedro Obiang – are up for the axe with Aaron Cresswell, Andy Carroll and Mark Noble waiting in the wings to take their places against the Magpies – but if that is the case then there are another senior duo who can consider themselves seriously lucky to escape.
Pablo Zabaleta was torn to pieces by Raheem Sterling against City and were Ryan Fredericks available, the summer signing out through injury, then the Argentine might have been benched.
Instead, with few other options available to Pellegrini, the veteran looks to keep his place – a fortuitous turn for the former Manchester City defender.
Another man who failed to have any sort of impact was Grady Diangana and it is a similar situation to Zabaleta in that there are no real options to take his place – other than reverting Antonio onto the right and benching the youngster.
Neither forward really showed anything to warrant keeping them in the team but with the likes of Carroll, Javier Hernandez and Lucas Perez waiting on from the fringes it is more likely that the Hammers replace the man up front than the one out wide.
Diangana has to improve his game to keep his place and he can count himself lucky if he does start against the Magpies next weekend.