Mateus Fernandes took Lucas Paqueta’s advice at West Ham United and ran with it.
But don’t worry. The Portuguese playmaker is not going to knock on Nuno Espirito Santo’s door at Rush Green this week and demand a return to Sporting Lisbon, ruling himself out of contention for the trip to Chelsea next time out.
Mateus Fernandes may be a £100 million footballer in the making, but his sole focus now is on West Ham United and exercising the ghosts of that dismal relegation campaign at Southampton in 2024/25.
How much money do you think Mateus Fernandes is worth now?! 😍
An absolute baller
In contrast, Nuno Espirito Santo was without Lucas Paqueta for a third straight match when Sunderland came to town on Saturday.
But the soon-to-be-departing Brazilian still played a role – of sorts – as West Ham dispensed with Regis Le Bris’ Black Cats in a rip-roaring opening 45 minutes at the London Stadium.
Mateus Fernandes takes Lucas Paqueta’s advice at West Ham United
Mateus Fernandes was averaging 0.6 shots per game in the Premier League. But against Sunderland, he recorded three in just 90 minutes.
One of those fizzed past Robin Roefs and into the top corner of the visitors’ net just before half-time. Fernandes nearly doubled his tally in equally spectacular fashion late on, only to see another cannonball strike rattle the crossbar as Konstantinos Mavropanos and Omar Alderete engaged in something of an angry waltz nearby.
Fernandes scored a first headed goal against Leeds in October. This was the former Sporting Lisbon starlet’s first from outside the box. And as he ticked off another personal landmark, some credit should go to Paqueta.
He, alongside Crysencio Summerville and another fellow Portuguese-speaker in Pablo Felipe, have been urging Fernandes to try his luck from distance. Against Sunderland, he bought the ticket and won the raffle.
“It was unbelievable! It was my first goal from outside of the box, so I’m very happy,” Fernandes told reporters at full-time. “It’s a thing I started to learn on the training ground. I started to do it on training sessions, so I need to try more in the games because I can shoot well.
“It was good for me and it was good for the team as well.
“Everyone actually, Summerville, Pablo, Lucas, they said to me to shoot! But in my position, I try to give the better chance for them and then they do the work to score the goals.
“But yeah, it was a good point for me today. It gave me confidence for the next games and I’ll try to shoot more.”
Fernandes’ shot per game average increased five-fold against Sunderland.
So Liam Rosenior would probably benefit from spending a little more time on the training pitch this week instructing his Chelsea players to close down the 21-year-old with every chance they get.
How many points would West Ham have taken from their last two games if Lucas Paqueta had been playing? 🤔
Maybe I’m harsh, but I just don’t think he suits this team anymore…
Fernandes steps up in Paqueta’s absence as Chelsea test looms
Hammers News readers voted Fernandes as our Man of the Match with a landslide 71 per cent at the time of writing.
Has there been a more complete midfield performance from a West Ham player since the Declan Rice days?
“I try to control [the game]. And the manager, he asked for me to control the middle of the park,” Fernandes revealed. “I think it’s the most important area on the pitch because you control the timing of the game, you control the attacks, when you defend, so this is my position. I enjoy every minute when I play in midfield.
“When you score you are more happy, when you win we are more happy and it will be a fantastic week for us.
“This is just one game, we already know that football can change very quickly,” he would go on to warn. “You need to play better, you need to win the games.
“Not to concede the goal, it’s the main goal for us, as you know if we don’t concede, we win because we always score.
“Winning the games, I think everyone is together. We need to be together every time, even in difficult times because this is football, when we can change everything and we know that.
“So, we focus on our work, what we can control and we’ll go again next week against Chelsea.”
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