The emergence of Pablo Fornals as a real midfield force over recent games has been seriously encouraging given that some of us were busily writing him off at the start of his Hammers career.
Sadly, too many – and I include myself – are guilty, making knee jerk reactions when all new players need a bit of time.
The absence of Tomas Soucek -who himself had made a fine start to his Irons career – was greeted with anxiety by many for the Southampton game.
But the reality was he was barely missed with Fornals stepping up brilliantly and playing a major part in the goal scoring exploits and has now recorded five assists over the season.
He is keen to build on his progress and Arsenal tomorrow presents him with another opportunity to pile pressure on other midfielders for their place in the team when they are all fit.
And speaking at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/march/05-march/pablo-fornals-i-want-continue-playing-well-our-fans he said: “We have a lot of matches remaining and we need to keep going to reach our goals.
“I’m feeling good and we want to be successful for our fans – I just want to continue playing well for them. It was fun to play in Saturday’s game. We are a great team when we are playing well and we can create a lot.”
He believes West Ham are in a better place as they prepare to take on the Gooners having produced good performances in each of their previous two matches.
He added: “We are in a good moment and I am absolutely convinced that we can get a result at Arsenal.”