Mark Noble made the sort of return to action yesterday which solidly underlined the manager’s assertion of his great importance to the squad.

And the captain’s performance also confirmed Pelle’s reasoning for not adding a defensive midfielder to the squad – beyond Carlos Sanchez – during the summer.

As has been mentioned previously, the captain’s performance alongside Declan Rice, made a big difference to the balance of the team.

But the 32 year old  was more enthusiastic to talk about Seb Haller’s contribution in an after match interview rather than his own at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2019/august/25-august/noble-proud-mark-350th-premier-league-appearance-win

Haller looks to be the striker this club has been missing for so long and there was nobody – including the MOTD pundits who aren’t always the easiest on the Hammers – who weren’t massively impressed by the Frenchman.

The captain too saw enough to realise that we have a real weapon at our disposal up front this season without going too far over the top.

Noble said: “When you come to a club and you’ve been bought for that sort of money, you want to get off to a good start.

“We played Manchester City at home, which was a tough game for us, then Brighton away which he missed, but he was back with two goals and let’s hope he can continue with that.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but it’s a great start for him.”