£45m striker Haller hasn’t scored in seven successive Premier League games but could he break his barren run when Manuel Pellegrini’s side host Arsenal?
Former West Ham United striker Dean Ashton believes Sebastien Haller’s confidence has hit rock bottom after a miserable run of form in front of goal, speaking to Alan Brazil on talkSPORT (9.30am).
Big things were expected of Haller when The Hammers invested a club-record £45 million in the skilful targetman over the summer, but after a brilliant start to life in English football and a stunning brace against Watford, the goals have dried up.
The rangy Frenchman has not scored in his last seven Premier League matches and he is starting to look like a shadow of the irrepressible targerman who bullied Bundesliga defenders into submission during two excellent years at Frankfurt.
Haller has not been helped by a lack of support from the wide areas, with Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko seemingly short of inspiration, but patience is starting to wear thin already amongst a typically demanding fanbase.
“Haller looks like a totally different player than he did at the start of the season,” Ashton says.
“Everyone was raving about him, now he looks like his confidence is shot to pieces. They’re not playing well at all.”
If there is any side that Haller would love to test himself against right now, however, it is Arsenal. The Gunners look more vulnerable at the back than ever and Haller’s fearsome physicality, not to mention his eye for the unexpected, should give the error-prone David Luiz and Sokratis Papastathopoulos plenty of sleepless nights.
So don’t be surprised if Haller ends his barren run when Freddie Ljungberg’s side travel to the London Stadium on Monday night.
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