Prove me wrong, Chicharito, prove me wrong.

Just a few days removed from calling him a “passenger player” I found myself actively cheering for the Mexican fox in the box on. Don’t get me wrong he still is a passenger player, but I’d never cheer against a West Ham player and certainly not if they have an impact like Chicharito did against Burnley.

One paragraph. That’s what ill give to outline Chicharito’s performance in the Cup match against Tottenham. It was uninspired and uneventful. There was little movement, no tracking back, and he played like he didn’t want to be on the pitch for his team. The game was also up for grabs early and a little effort from Chicharito or his forward partner Michail Antonio could have made a big difference early.

With that said, the wise football sage Manuel Pellegrini decided to select Chicharito as his first substitute and trusted him to impact the game over the goal scorer in the Spurs match Lucas Perez. In the 61st minute, Chicharito came on the pitch for Pedro Obiang as West Ham committed to their attack and Pellegrini was eventually proved correct for his decision.

The stats were solid for Chicharito as a striker: in the 29 minutes he played he racked up two shots (one on target), nine touches, seven passes, one block, and of course one goal.

His goal was helped along by two great plays, one by man of the match winger Felipe Anderson and the other by fellow doghouse player Michail Antonio. Anderson won back possession down the wing and lobbed an insanely accurate pass to Antonio. When he received the ball, Antonio chested to down behind defender Ben Mee and right into Chicharito’s path. He needed two touches to get the ball in possession and then in front of him which showed incredible poise and skill, before banging it top corner short side.

It was a masterfully played goal by Hernandez who was happy to be back in the goals, but I doubt this one goal will change Pellegrini’s mind on his transfer in January. It’s speculative, but If Pellegrini wants to reform this squad within a three year period he’ll need the monetary return for Chicharito as soon as possible as the MLS and CSL would pay top dollar for a name-brand player like him.

That being said, if Chicharito could turn this one solid performance into a few strong performances off of the bench it could go a long way towards changing the mind of Pellegrini to at least keep him until the summer. I would love to be proven wrong by Chicharito and have him bag more and more goals, but I’m just trying to stay logical on this topic.