Aaron Cresswell backs Manuel Lanzini to fill role vacated by Dimitri Payet

West Ham United defender Aaron Cresswell has lavished praise on Manuel Lanzini and Andy Carroll and believes the Argentine playmaker can "take the number 10 role" vacated by wantaway Frenchman Dimitri Payet.

Lanzini and Carroll have been in excellent form in recent weeks and have helped the Hammers surge up the Premier League table without the presence of the unsettled Payet, who is currently refusing to play for Slaven Bilic's men.

Lanzini provided two assists and scored once as West Ham made light work of Middlesbrough last weekend, and Cresswell believes the 23-year-old is returning to the heights he hit last season.

"We always knew Manu was capable of that, and we saw it last season as well," Cresswell told West Ham's official website. "We know the whole team had a bit of a dip in the first 10 games of this season but he is starting to show what he showed last season. Hopefully for us he will continue that, take the number 10 role and take chances and make chances."

Cresswell also reserved special praise for Carroll. The former Liverpool forward has struggled with injuries for much of the current campaign but the former IpswichTown left-back believes he is one of West Ham's most important players.

"Andy has been fantastic since he has come back from injury and has been one of the most important players in our team," Cresswell added. "If he keeps scoring, hopefully that can keep pushing us up that table.

"We've got five wins in the last seven games which is very positive and if we keep that up, we'll be further up that table come the end of the season. All we can do as professionals is do our job and do it well for the club and the lads we've got in that dressing room will do that."

The Irons have a free weekend after being knocked out by Manchester City in the FA Cup third- round earlier this month. Their next league match is against Pep Guardiola's men at The London Stadium, and Cresswell is keen to "put things right".

"Manchester City are one of the toughest teams to play against and it was obviously disappointing to go out of the FA Cup the way we did, but we want to rectify that and put things right." said Cresswell.