- Aaron Cresswell hails the form of Manuel Lanzini and Andy Carroll
- Attacking duo have been in outstanding form for West Ham United in recent weeks
- Hammers are on a run of five wins in their last seven Premier League matches
Aaron Cresswell says Manuel Lanzini and Andy Carroll are showing the form every West Ham United player knows they are capable of.
Argentine Lanzini has revelled in the No10 role he has filled in the Premier League wins over Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough, scoring once against the Eagles and assisting twice at Boro.
The left-back has thoroughly enjoyed watching the former River Plate starlet in action and has backed him to continue his form when Manchester City visit London Stadium on Wednesday 1 February.
“We always knew Manu was capable of that, and we saw it last season as well,” Cresswell confirmed. “We know the whole team had a bit of a dip in the first ten games of this season but he is starting to show what he showed last season.
“Hopefully for us he will continue that, take the No10 role and take chances and make chances.”
Another player who has been in unstoppable form in recent weeks is Carroll, scoring five times in ten appearances since his return from a knee injury in December.
“Andy has been fantastic since he has come back from injury and has been one of the most important players in our team,” the No3 observed. “If he keeps scoring, hopefully that can keep pushing us up that table.”
“We’ve got five wins in the last seven games which is very positive and if we keep that up, we’ll be further up that table come the end of the season. All we can do as professionals is do our job and do it well for the Club and the lads we’ve got in that dressing room will do that.
“Manchester City one of the toughest teams to play against and it was obviously disappointing to go out of the FA Cup the way we did, but we want to rectify that and put things right.”
While Manchester City have beaten West Ham in both previous meetings this season – 3-1 in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium in August and 5-0 at London Stadium in the Emirates FA Cup third round earlier this month – Cresswell says confidence is high ahead of next week’s fixture after victory at Middlesbrough.
“That’s back-to-back wins, which is not easy,” he observed. “We did it over Christmas when we got three wins after a draw, so it’s always positives and always puts you up the league, so we want to keep the positivity around the place and keep doing that and we’ll be OK.
“We played some good stuff in the first half on Saturday and, in some ways, it was disappointing not to score more than two. That said, Andy scored just before half-time, which always helps, and then we managed to get the third goal late on and kill the game off.”