When you can’t win a game, making sure that you don’t lose it is the next best thing, and West Ham did excellently to stay in the game and come away from Villa Park with a point despite the sending off of left-back Arthur Masuaku.
The Congolese defender picked up two bookings from referee Mike Dean and got his marching orders after 22 second-half minutes, forcing his side to play the last quarter of the clash with just 10 men, and they well to hold their hosts at 0-0.
Getting the point from Villa Park was just the start of the problem with Masuaku, though, as the defender will now be set to miss out this weekend as Manuel Pellegrini’s side welcome Manchester United to The London Stadium, a game that will likely see Aaron Cresswell start.
That news will not come as music to the ears of the home fans. In the first month of the season, Arthur Masuaku made it into WhoScored’s team of the month at left-back, and his work in both attack and defence down the left-flank will certainly be missed against the Red Devils.
Whether or not Pellegrini opts to change his system to make up for the fact that he won’t have the marauding Masuaku is yet to be seen, but whatever the setup, the left-back’s absence is a big one, especially seeing how well he links up with Felipe Anderson on the left-flank.
In this fixture last year, Felipe Anderson bagged his first goal for West Ham whilst lining up in a 4-1-4-1 system with Masuaku behind him, and not having his partner in crime down the left could affect Anderson as well as the defensive situation this weekend.
