West Ham: Ayew update; Adrian explains turnaround; former manager offers Cresswell opinion

By Sam Leveridge

The Hammers had a good weekend, and appear to have started the week well too, as the Mirror claim that club record signing Andre Ayew could be back in action in just six weeks, slightly ahead of schedule. Ayew has played just 35 minutes of football for the Hammers since completing a £20 million move from Swansea City in the summer, before injuring his thigh on debut against Chelsea.

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Now expected back two weeks ahead of what was initially planned, the Hammers are hoping that he will return in time for three crunch fixtures in late November and early December. The Irons have been lacking firepower in recent weeks with Simone Zaza and Jonathan Calleri disappointing and failing to live up to expectations, and Ayew’s talents will certainly be welcome when he returns to fitness for Bilic and his team.

However, goalkeeper Adrian has praised Bilic and attributed the team’s turnaround in form to Bilic’s new system which was first on show at Selhurst Park in victory on Saturday. The Spanish ‘keeper explained:

“It’s very important to keep a clean sheet because if you score one goal, like we did, you win three points. It is a change of our mind. We need to start winning games and getting points because we want to climb the table. This system worked for us. Every game is different and we went with this one, and luckily for us it worked.”

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Adrian played well for the Irons and was visibly delighted to put an end to a run of five consecutive games without a win as he picked up just his second clean sheet of the season in victory over former manager Alan Pardew.

Another man who once occupied the Upton Park dugout, Harry Redknapp, also offered his view of the incidents which led to the sending off of Aaron Cresswell on Saturday evening as he said on BT Sport:

“It was a ridiculous decision. How can you send someone off for that? It was disgusting. It was an innocuous challenge – two players running towards each other. He [referee, Martin Atkinson] could have ruined a great performance from West Ham with that sending off, but they kept going and it was a great result for them.”

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Fortunately for the Irons, Cresswell’s dismissal had no influence on the final result, but they will be without their first choice left-back when Sunderland visit the London Stadium at the weekend.

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