Premier League

Imminent Lanzini return is not good news for Nasri

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OPINION

Everything seemed rather rosy for West Ham United midfielder Samir Nasri since he signed for the club.

He blew the Hammers fans away with his performance against Arsenal a few weeks ago, and it is safe to say that he has proved many doubters wrong in the matches after.

However, everything may not seem as clean cut after boss Manuel Pellegrini provided an update on attacking midfielder Manuel Lanzini in his pre-match press conference ahead of the clash against Wolves.

“We hope that Lanzini could be back in one month more for the team,” Pellegrini said, as quoted by Football London.

The fact that the crocked star could be back by at least February may be great news for the supporters – after all, they adored him last season – but it will no doubt leave Nasri sweating about where that now leaves him in the pecking order.

He already has to compete with the likes of Robert Snodgrass and Grady Diangana for a spot in the starting XI, but now the 25-year-old has been thrown into the mix, that is just going to make life a lot harder for the ex-Manchester City man.

There is no doubting the quality that he is showing, but before he got injured, Lanzini was arguably one of West Ham’s best players.

Yes, he will not be at his best straight away, but he is certainly a player who can keep Nasri out of the first team for quite a while.

It was not expected that Lanzini would return so early – and while this will be music to Pellegrini’s ears due to the absence of Andriy Yarmolenko, that will not be the case for the Frenchman.

The playmaker will be sweating profusely after this news – and rightly so.

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