Tonka: Brilliant but that could mean bench for Dec

Hammers defensive legend Ray ‘Tonka’ Stewart discusses last night’s game against Burnley and what he believes David Moyes is likely to do against his former club Everton at the weekend.

By Ray Stewart

That was utterly brilliant – the best game of the season by a distance from a team playing top four football.

But what next? Manu Lanzini and Said Benrahma were both sensational and I really don’t see how Moysie can drop either of them for the game against the Toffees.

It would send entirely the wrong message to the team if he were to change anything for the match against the Toffees EVEN IF DECLAN IS FIT FOR THE GAME!

I believe that he will probably stick with the same team and have Declan on the bench because frankly after such a performance it’s the the right thing today.

Benrahma showed why we paid £25m or so for him and Manu was just brilliant. We are talking about a player who most would have expected to be on this way in the summer but on what we saw last night that can’t happen.

Had I been doing ratings last night I’d have found it difficult to mark anybody below 9 and a special word for Coufal who again was quite amazing.

Up front Mikey was stunning and both Fornals and Lingard were excellent. We could easily have had three, four or five last night at a place which has been a nightmare stadium for us down the years.

What a team this is! What a transformation since David took charge again and now we have Europe almost certainly to look forward to.

To make the Champions League would be utterly extraordinary and no more than these lads deserve.