Had Adam Wharton been fit enough to feature at Selhurst Park, West Ham United vs Crystal Palace could have been the stage for a head-to-head between two of the best young midfielders in the Premier League.
Instead, as Oliver Glasner found himself without Wharton due to an adductor injury, Nuno Espirito Santo’s all-action compatriot swaggered onto the Selhurst Park stage and owned it.
If Jo Tessem ever tells you which numbers to select for your Lucky Dip, we’d recommend taking the former Southampton captain seriously. Tessem called Fernandes the ‘ultimate midfielder’ before he even joined West Ham United in the summer of 2025.
Pick your Man of the Match after Palace 0-0 West Ham!
Finishing rock bottom with the Saints in, Tessem liked everyone’s new favourite midfielder before it was cool.
Now, if Mateus Fernandes is not yet the ‘ultimate’ midfielder, then he can certainly make a case for being the ‘complete’ midfielder.
Mateus Fernandes ran the show for West Ham United at Crystal Palace
Only left-back El Hadji Malick Diouf had more touches of the ball in South London.
No one completed more passes, or ended the night with a better pass accuracy. He topped the charts when it came to drawing fouls, winning tackles, and also lost the ball only once despite frequently receiving possession in packed areas of the pitch.
Statistically, Mateus Fernandes is one of the Premier League’s most ‘press resistant’ midfielders.
The game wasn’t even a quarter of an hour old when the newly-capped Portugal international picked up the ball deep inside his own half and, despite being shoved into a corner, swivelled away before winning a free kick.
Strength and skill, power and poise. Creative and combative. In an era of midfield ‘specialists’, Fernandes is rapidly developing into an elite all-rounder.
Jamie Carragher called Fernandes a ‘class act’. You can add that to the ever-growing list of superlatives.
Fernandes and West Ham ‘ready for the battle’
Speaking to Sky Sports at full-time, Fernandes was left balancing the disappointment of a few missed chances with the importance of avoiding defeat in a tricky away fixture.
What does Matty need to IMPROVE to become the perfect midfielder?
Are there any weaknesses?
“I think first-half was better than the second,” he said after Taty Castellanos and Dinos Mavropanos came close to building on their Wolves braces. “We started the game very well. [Palace goalkeeper Dean] Henderson played a good game for them.
“It’s a point. We continue into the next game [against Everton on Saturday]. We need to be ready for every game.
“We just focus on ourselves. We can’t control the other games. We need to do our job next week, we have a very good game to show our quality like we did in the last [few] weeks.
“We are ready for the battle.”
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