OPINON
West Ham are in turmoil, there’s no two ways about it.
The Hammers are winless in six in the Premier League, and now face a a tricky run of fixtures that includes a meeting with Tottenham, who have just appointed Jose Mourinho, on Saturday.
And you can’t help feeling that match prove to be must win for Manuel Pellegrini.
His side were supposed to be challenging for Europe this season, but instead they are lurking in the doldrums and showing no signs of arresting their slump any time soon.
If they are to get a result on Saturday, they need to recapture some semblance of stability, and the best of doing that could be to recall Angelo Ogbonna.
The Italian seemingly hadn’t done a great deal wrong prior to getting dropped after the 2-0 defeat to Everton in October, but he has now sat out the last three Premier League matches to no positive effect for the Irons.
According to Sam Inkersole, however, he could be in line for a comeback this weekend.
Writing in a piece for Football.London, he said: “As mentioned, Fabian Balbuena’s late arrival back to east London could factor against him with a lunchtime kick off on Saturday.
“The centre half hasn’t been in good form since he replaced Angelo Ogbonna anyway and the Italian is a serious candidate for a recall.”
Ogbonna deserves to start against Spurs.
The £70,000-a-week ace [Spotrac] has averaged more tackles, more clearances, more blocks, and a higher Whoscored rating than Balbuena this season, and it’s almost baffling that Pellegrini chose to reinstate that Paraguayan in the first place.
Now, however, he must make up for that mistake by playing Ogbonna on Saturday.
