The injury to Aaron Cresswell was a hard one to take for West Ham fans. He was easily the Hammers’ best player during the 2014-2015 campaign and was steady last season despite a slow start.
Cresswell’s injury during pre-season gave manager Slaven Bilic a real headache. The Twittersphere was into overdrive with panicked stricken fans. The hard-working Michail Antonio was shoved back into the dreaded full back role and supporters were just praying for the former Ipswich star to come back.
However, his presumably guaranteed place in the first time is in doubt. The summer signing of Arthur Masuaku from Olympiakos for a reported £6.2 million has really put a spanner in the works. The Frenchman has been surprisingly steady defensive and offensively. At times he lacks concentration but that level of mental expertise in the game comes with age.
The question would be if West Ham had Masuaku for the Astra game would they be out of Europe? He grew into matches as a player after having defensive issues at the start of the Chelsea and Man City games. He was arguably the best player against Bournemouth but the award went to Gokhan Tore on the official Twitter poll. In the match against the Cherries he was physically strong and rarely put a foot wrong.
The former Olympiakos star stated he was “quite good” at attacking, one of Cresswell’s best traits. He has shown glimpses of this trait, especially against Man City. His great work to get down the by-line created the cross for Antonio to score. Being able to create something out of nothing is what fans have come to expect of Cresswell in the past two years.
The real headache for Slaven Bilic will be when Cresswell is back from his knee injury. The Croat will have to decide between the two A’s, Arthur or Aaron. It is a good dilemma for Bilic to deal with but it will be hard to take the 22-year old out of the team if he continues to impress.
