OPINION
There was a lot for Manuel Pellegrini to take away from West Ham’s defeat to Everton on Saturday evening.
The Hammers limped their way to a 2-0 loss that, on another day, could have been a whole lot worse, and a lot more embarrassing.
Not that it could have gotten much more damaging for their hopes of a Europa League spot.
Losing to the Toffees, one of their closest contenders for that exalted seventh placed finish, has all but put pay to any hopes of European football next season, and while there’s no shame in that given the quality of the opposition, the lacklustre manner in which the Hammers have consigned themselves to their fate will be a real worry.
Even more of a worry, however, will be just how dreadfully they managed without Brazilian talisman Felipe Anderson.
With Marko Arnautovic doing a very convincing impression of a man who would rather be in China right now, much of the Irons’ attacking responsibility has fallen at the feet of the £85,000-a-week [Spotrac] South American.
Largely speaking, that has been okay, and Anderson has thrived during his first campaign in England, but Saturday’s underwhelming performance highlighted just who badly the Hammers need him in the side.
Without him, they looked bereft of ideas and lacking in any creativity, and while the performance was so bad that you wonder whether even Anderson could have really made things much better, at least the 24-year-old possesses the ability to create something from nothing.
When that mercurial spark is missing, you are ultimately left with, well, nothing.
