West Ham suffered a hefty defeat at the hands of Premier League title favourites Manchester City on Saturday, losing 4-0 at the London Stadium.
While defeat against the Citizens was unsurprising given the strength of Pep Guardiola’s side, the performance left a lot to be desired and the statistics of the campaign so far make for grim reading – with the Hammers losing seven of their 13 league matches.
A more favourable sequence of fixtures now lies ahead of Manuel Pellegrini’s side but the Chilean boss’ strategy came under scrutiny after the defeat to Manchester City, where West Ham were carved apart too easily.
While the Hammers did try to force their way through at the other end, creating a number of decent openings, the tactical decisions made by Pellegrini raised eyebrows – and many fans were furious with the decision to bring off Felipe Anderson.
The Brazilian was replaced by Lucas Perez in the 68th minute and plenty of fans could not get their head around the change. We have gathered some of their reactions below.
Awful change. Antonio’s the one in need of replacing.
— Brian Reid (@bshupresident) November 24, 2018
HOW is antonio still on the field?
— Sean (@prawnman17) November 24, 2018
Wtf is that
— Dylan (@didsofire) November 24, 2018
anderson brilliant today so we take him off
— gary watkins (@GaryGwatkins) November 24, 2018
Should have took Pedro off he can’t pass for toffee
— WestHamFanTone (@WestHamFanTone) November 24, 2018
#WHUMCI Perez for Anderson is white flag waving. Antonio still on pitch is out n out degrading
— Mags ❤️s & ⚒️s (@Magslong2) November 24, 2018