West Ham's Arne Engels move vindicated as Martin O'Neill reveals Celtic struggles after sale

West Ham United spent big money to bring Arne Engels to the London Stadium this summer.

The Hammers spent £22million on signing the midfielder from Celtic earlier in the summer, the most they spent on a player in the window.

The midfield was always an area that the Irons were going to look at improving, especially after Mateus Fernandes' departure.

The likes of Mohamadou Kante and Divine Mukasa are already impressing under Nuno Espirito Santo, but Engels has started in seven league games already.

The 23-year-old does both sides of the game well, and has the ability to produce some magic from a set-piece situation.

His former manager Martin O'Neill has revealed Celtic's struggles after West Ham pinched arguably their best player.

Martin O'Neill says he misses Arne Engels' midfield 'power'

Engels has started in all seven league games that he's featured in since arriving in E20, emerging as a key player for Nuno already.

He has two assists to his name, with one coming in a 3-2 win over Bolton, and the other in a 4-2 victory over promotion rivals Wolves.

Engels is particularly impressive when picking the ball up from deep, running forward to create goal-scoring opportunities.

Celtic lost 1-0 to their Old Firm rivals Rangers on Sunday, and O'Neill has been speaking about Engels' departure.

The Celtic manager said, as quoted by the Daily Record: "I think that in an ideal world it would have been greater to have the likes of Engels and that type of running power, and that’s really what we were trying to do when we knew that Arne was going to leave.

"Arne, I always felt he was going to be leaving anyway. Trying to get a like-for-like, we looked at a number of players who could do that.

"For one reason or another, it didn’t materialise. So yeah, he’s been a loss in terms of that running power he can give you."

Engels grabbed 15 goals and assists combined in 46 games last season for the Hoops, winning the club's player of the year award the campaign prior.

The 23-year-old has made four appearances for Belgium and has the chance to take West Ham to the Premier League while continuing to develop himself.

Some may have questioned the £22m price tag, but Engels is now starting to show why the Irons paid the money that they did.

How did Engels play vs Millwall?

West Ham drew 2-2 with Millwall on Saturday in what was the first Dockers Derby since 2012.

The Hammers found themselves 2-0 down at half-time, as Engels, like others, had a poor first 45 minutes.

But his overall statistics from the game are impressive, having completed 100 per cent of his dribbles while winning 67 per cent of his ground duels.

He did misplace 11 of his 50 attempted passes, but some of these were in the poor first-half showing.

Engels will only benefit from these types of high-pressure games, with many more yet to come in E20 this season.