Pablo Zabaleta reckons Samir Nasri has filled a gaping hole in the Hammers set up perfectly and not many fans would disagree after watching the 31 year old over his first two games.

The team has been really hard by the absence of first Manu Lanzini and then Jack Wilshere as the boss attempted to find the creative spark to set the team really ticking.

Nasri was the man he put his trust in as an out of contract performer as much in need of a break as we needed a player of his abilities.

And against Birmingham and last week Arsenal the Frenchman showed that he has lost none of the creativity which made him a star first at Highbury and later as part of Pellegrini’s Manchester City.

Zaba was part of the same team and knows that the midfielder is a truly quality performer at his best and the great part is there is obviously mre to come during his loan spell with a one year option attached to it.

Discussing his team mate starting with the match against Arsenal Zaba told www.whufc.com: “It was a great game for Samir, his first Premier League game for us against Arsenal, his old team, in a game where the intensity and pace was different to against Birmingham.

“He’s one of those players that we know on the ball is a different class. In the last few weeks he needed to work on his fitness level and the reason he’s here with us is that we lost Lanzini at the beginning of the season and then Jack Wilshere.

“He’s someone to play in between the lines and behind the striker, so having Samir with the team is something very good for us. He will improve with each game because it’s more about his fitness level. He will bring us so much quality.”

“This season the owners have shown so much ambition by bringing in a successful manager, then spending big to add the quality to the team. You can see now that the team is going well.

“I think we need to go step-by-step, and I hope we can continue to play well and make sure we finish the season on a high.

“We need this – we need to try to improve what we have done in the last two seasons, but you can see now when we play against Arsenal, when we play against the big teams, we are still playing in the same way.”