By Louis Nixon

As the Hammers secured victory over Spurs, they look forward to hopefully continuing their form against Sunderland, but should changes be made to the starting squad? 

Against Tottenham, it didn’t come as a surprise to see Wan-Bissaka as well as Ollie Scarles start. Wan-Bissaka’s return from AFCON meant it was almost inevitable for him to start, but his skillset was also ideal for Spurs. The ability to make a last-ditch challenge and could get stuck in more than Walker-Peters would’ve been. 

However, some didn’t anticipate Ollie Scarles to start, a player who has had many ups and downs in a West Ham shirt this season, where his inconsistency has either cost us, or not been able to bring us back into the game, but against Spurs, he was brilliant, he served his role well and worked with Fernandes and Summerville to a tee which is likely something that Nuno will look to use against Sunderland as well. 

The fact that Walker-Peters is an ex-Spurs player would’ve been a justifiable reason for him to not play, all in all, we are a fragile defence in moments and we couldn’t afford for a player to have been targeted, therefore giving Spurs a weakpoint that they could have focused on, so in that regard, it had to be Ollie Scarles and Wan-Bissaka starting. 

In all honesty, I believe that it should remain the same and we can utilise Walker-Peters off the bench. He’s a very good player and has been consistent whilst Wan-Bissaka has been gone, but Wan-Bissaka provides more to us deffensively and Ollie Scarles also appears to be getting more and more comfortable each week. I suspect that Mallick Diouf will inherit the starting squad once the AFCON winner returns, but for now, it should be Ollie who takes the reins. 

A tough decision for the Hammers and Nuno, but it’s a nice problem to have. Instead of being too short in a position, we’re now discussing who to play where, which is a nice positive change to have.