OPINION
West Ham United produced their most complete performance of the Premier League season as they added to Jose Mourinho’s misery by securing a 3-1 win over Manchester United on Saturday.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side were better than their opponents in every area, and their domination started in the midfield engine room. And it’s the most underappreciated of their midfield trio who deserves some praise after the game.
Declan Rice and Mark Noble again produced excellent performances against United, but Pedro Obiang has made himself undroppable for Pellegrini in recent weeks.
The former Sampdoria man, on a reported £55,ooo-per-week in East London [Source: Spotrac], has emerged as a key cog in the Hammers machine, and his industrious display on Saturday was another indication of why he is so important to this West Ham team.
His presence alongside Rice in the midfield three allowed Noble to push further forward, something that proved dividends for the team as the captain was involved in the first and third Hammers goals.
Obiang is a safety blanket in midfield, but much more than that also. His technical ability is extremely underrated due to the fact that he usually keeps things simple, but he is a terrific passer of the ball.
The energy and dynamism that he brings to the middle of the park is similar in style to Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante and Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi. He is a ball of energy, and that transmits to his teammates as well.
Pellegrini struggled to find a suitable central midfield partnership at the start of the season, but the trio of Rice, Noble and Obiang has proved itself to be worth its weight in gold in recent weeks.
Noble as the formidable one club man and Rice as the teenage golden boy get the majority of the credit, but Obiang’s part in West Ham’s recovery shouldn’t be forgotten.
The Spaniard is showing that he can fill the boots of Cheikhou Kouyate, who left for Crystal Palace this summer, and that he is capable of providing the legs in midfield.
He and Rice are similar players in a way, both technically solid midfielders who provide energy and defensive awareness to the middle of the pitch.
But while the 19-year-old is rightly hailed as the next big thing, Obiang is largely forgotten outside of East London. More performances like the one against United, however, and that won’t continue to be the case for very long.
