The Hammers have really shown they can cope without Declan Rice since his £100 million departure to Arsenal and David Moyes is experiencing the feelings of relief he went through when losing Wayne Rooney.
It was a natural comparison for the Hammers boss to make as he looked forward to the City match when he faced much the same sort of rebuild as now.
And how good it would be if he could repeat the trick of qualifying for the Champions League as he did at The Toffees in the following season.
Speaking to reporters the manager recalled the impact Rooney had made to his Everton team and the agony he faced in having to sell him.
Moyes had made the point regularly last season that he was loathe to lose the former captain but he has come to terms with it by making some fine signings as we have witness over the opening games,
‘But you go out and try and buy more team players. But also people inside the building have to stand up a little bit more.’I think that happened then and my early feeling is that’s happening now. Although it’s early days, that’s what we want from them.
‘Years ago this club lost Dimitri Payet who was probably the talisman. But the club has to move on and that’s what happens in football.
‘You’re quite quickly forgotten about and we have to find a team and a way of playing that suits the players we have.
‘We have a strong group with players like Angelo Ogbonna, Aaron Cresswell, Lukasz Fabianski and James Ward-Prowse. We have a group of senior leaders including Michail Antonio. So they’ve all stepped up and in many cases they were a huge help to Declan, as was Mark Noble.’