Pellegrini must sort it out and stop blaming the past

I FOUND it staggering to hear Manuel Pellegrini say that West Ham are still affected by last season’s relegation battle. It’s nonsense. Seven of the team who started Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat by Wolves were signed by Pellegrini, Andriy Yarmolenko — another new signing — came off the bench while winger Robert Snodgrass spent the last campaign on loan at Aston Villa in the Championship. Rather than laying the blame at David Moyes’s door, Pellegrini needs to take some responsibility. He brought in Mario Husillos as his director of football and the owners allowed him to spend close to £100million. The simple fact is that performances have not been good enough. The most alarming statistic is that West Ham have run 65.6 miles per game in their four matches this season — 2½ miles fewer than under Moyes. With just four West Ham players — Marko Arnautovic, Yarmolenko, Lukasz Fabianski and Snodgrass — away on international duty, now would offer the perfect chance for Pellegrini to put in some hard work on the training ground and get his squad up to speed. Their season hinges on how quickly centre backs Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena can build a solid partnership. No team conceded more goals in the Premier League than West Ham’s 68 last season but there are signs of a promising pairing with these two. Instead, the players have been given time off until tomorrow and Pellegrini has gone back to his native Chile. While we do not know why he has gone away, West Ham fans would expect their team to do everything possible to turn around their awful start to the season.