(Photo by James Griffiths/West Ham United FC via Getty Images)

Pablo Fornals has done well to battle his way into the team after a slow start under Pellegrini.

He’s industrious, hard working and has an assist in him and yesterday he was a hard working member of a midfield  in a team which certainly deserved a lot more than a late defeat.

Personally I would have liked to see Manu Lanzini given 20 minutes or so – maybe as his sub – towards the end as it looked the type of game which could have been suited to his creativity.

And given the Argentine’s performance against Charlton – his best for some time – it seemed an opportunity missed although as mentioned in an earlier piece on here, Arthur Masuaku was particularly bright and providing plenty of decent stuff in the creative department.

Fornals, however, worked  very hard and afterwards gave his thoughts on the game which for so long looked there for the taking.

Commenting at Sky Sports he said: “I think we deserved a little bit more from our good match

“Okay, we didn’t try to keep the ball a lot, but we created a lot of chances and we came so close to taking one point away from the match. – we maybe even deserved to take all three.

“We made a lot of changes in our formation and some players, but I think the biggest change was in the mentality of our team. We fought against a great team, face-to-face, and I think that is the key going forwards.”

“It’s frustrating, but we played a great match against one of the best teams in the league. 

“We lost some points, but I think it was a great performance to show that we are a great team as well, and we will try to keep on improving.”