Alphonse Areola leads the way as nine West Ham United players improve this season
Few could have predicted that West Ham United would enjoy such an excellent start to the season before a ball was kicked after the Irons sold their captain and talisman Declan Rice.
The midfielder’s departure to Arsenal left many doubting how the Irons would cope without the England international, but through the signings of James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez, David Moyes has ensured the Hammers have started the campaign excellently, both domestically and in Europe.
But it hasn’t just been the new additions at the London Stadium who have improved West Ham’s fortunes, instead the whole squad are performing at a much higher level than they ever managed in the 2022/23 season to once again put them in contention for the European positions.
According to WhoScored (7 October) nine players in Moyes’ side have a better average rating after seven Premier League matches this season, when compared to last year, with Alphonse Areola leading the way with a 7.15 mark this season, an improvement of 0.84.
Ward Prowse is next and currently has the highest overall rating of anyone at the London Stadium, with 7.69 an improvement of 0.73 when compared to his final season with Southampton as they were relegated last time out.
The remaining nine names on the list are players who were already in Moyes’ ranks last season, with the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Emerson, Tomas Soucek and Michail Antonio all fairing better as the Hammers look to have made huge steps all over the pitch over the summer.
There is some suggestion that this improvement indicates that West Ham are a better side without Rice in midfield and while individual players are seemingly thriving this year, that could just be because of a greater balance across the entire side.
Last season WhoScored gave Rice a 7.01 rating in the Premier League, a mark that would have still placed him as one of the Hammers better performers in the current squad and that was in a struggling side for much of the campaign as Moyes’ side finished 14th.
Now that the Irons don’t have that presence in the middle of the park, other players have had to step up their game and that has led to a collective improvement both individually and in the team’s performance. This means that the Hammers may be a better side without Rice, but it doesn’t mean that he wasn’t an excellent player to begin with.
Moyes deserves plenty of credit for the signing he made this summer, but he also deserves the plaudits for improving the players that were already in his side to begin with. So often he is criticised for playing a defensive brand of football, but these stats show that players all over the pitch can thrive under his management.
Hopefully, this sort of improvement can be carried on for the remainder of the season and who knows where the Irons could finish.
In other West Ham news, Mark Goldbridge has slammed Jarrod Bowen’s England call-up claiming the winger isn’t “even playing that well“