What a difference a month makes. Back in January, Alphonse Areola had the Hammers’ goal keeping starting berth and Mads Hermansen was condemned to virtually a practise-goal keeper role, saving shots in training sessions the closest he came to live action.

The Dane looked drained, seemingly banished from the starting line up and with the expectations being that West Ham would be loaning him out in the January window and bringing in a replacement.

In short, his West Ham career seemed over before it had begun.

Credit to Nuno for deciding that Hermansen’s attitude and hard work, despite his terrible start meant that he deserved another look: The Head Coach would have had volleys of abuse if Hermansen had flopped again.

But he brought the Dane back against Burnley: The nytimes.com described his recall as a ‘bold call” and Hermansen overcame a shaky start to reward Nuno with a clean sheet.

West Ham’s number one described yesterday’s clean sheet from his vantage point behind the defence and made it clear where he sees the improvement over last year:

“I actually asked Axel after the Burnley game when he last played, and when he said it was April I was...