OPINION
West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini can breathe easier as Arthur Masuaku is reportedly set to be fit enough to feature against Everton.
According to Claret & Hugh the 24-year-old left-back missed the Wolves game due to suffering a small knock which means that he will be ready to go by the time the Hammers take on the Toffees next weekend.
Pellegrini was no doubt sweating buckets over Masuaku’s potential availability as following Aaron Cresswell’s woeful outing at left-back against Wolves, it’s clear the Hammers need Masuaku whenever possible.
The French defender who earns £40,000-a-week at the London Stadium (Source: Spotrac) featured in all of his side’s Premier League outings this season ahead of missing the 1-0 defeat to Wolves on Saturday due to injury.
While Masuaku may not have been a defensive rock at the back in his displays at least he has looked better than fellow left-back Cresswell did against Wolves.
The 28-year-old was a liability and constantly was exposed due to darting down the wing with no thought of who was covering his defensive duties.
Masuaku can also be guilty of this flaw at times but he does at the very least, appeared to learn from his mistakes during his matches and tried to constantly stop repeating them.
This is unlike Cresswell who kept getting exposed across the whole 90 minutes against Wolves and when you consider his experience, this was unacceptable and means he should be instantly axed as the Toffees will have a field day against him.
Yet Pellegrini would have been worrying how to drop Cresswell if Masuaku was set for a spell on the sidelines as it’s not like he’s drowning in options to play at left-back.
However with Claret & Hugh’s report delivering a boost as they state that Masuaku is set to be raring to go for the Hammers’ next fixture than Pellegrini can start to breathe easier.
