After eight Premier League games with the second international break upon us, West Ham fans have got to be happy with the way their league campaign has gone so far. We know that the Crystal Palace loss was tough to stomach, but two losses from eight is a great start, and certainly something to build upon.
Whether or not Manuel Pellegrini can do just that and turn what has been a strong start into a strong season is yet to be seen, but the early signs are there with the likes of Sebastien Haller, Andriy Yarmolenko and Declan Rice all performing very well.
However, one man who has not been mentioned a lot amongst the fans who needs to be singled out for praise is a defender who a lot of fans didn’t even think would be playing a lot of football this year, and we can tell, it’s not Aaron Cresswell.
The man we’re talking about doesn’t whip freekicks int the corner like Cresswell, but at the back, he’s a solid option and has done an extremely good job of stepping into the role that everyone assumed would be Fabian Balbuena’s this season, and his name is Angelo Ogbonna.
The Italian defender has partnered up with Issa Diop to great effect so far, and when you take a quick look at his stats it’s not hard to see why defensively West Ham have looked as good as they have, even if they were undone by set-pieces against Palace last time out.
The ex-Juventus man has featured seven times in the Premier League so far and has been putting up some strong numbers. He’s averaging 3.3 successful aerial duels per game as well as 1.7 tackles, 1.3 blocks and 5.4 clearances, as per WhoScored.
If he can keep up this solid start then he’ll only make it harder for Balbuena to get a look in, and the level of performance is certainly something that the West Ham fans will love to see as they continue to hold their own in the top half of the Premier League table
