By Louis Nixon

Mateus Fernandes has been a midfielder who, regardless of the result, has always shone and seemed a star amidst all the gloom against Brighton, that trend continued.  

Despite the glamour’s performance from Lucas Paqueta and the clinical finishing from Jarrod Bowen, many could agree that the two best players on the pitch last night were Ollie Scarles and Fernandes himself, both players put in MOTM-worthy performances and certainly would’ve received more headline credit if the game had been won by us. 

Visually on the pitch and statistically, the young Portuguese midfielder shone in every aspect; he won the most tackles and duels across the game and was also the most fouled player on the pitch. This shows how much of a Footballing brain this youngster has, not only bags of confidence, but signs of demonstrating and mastering the dark arts in Football and becoming a nightmare for opposing sides. 

Despite playing a more holding role against Brighton in comparison to his box-to-box style he’s played in previous fixtures, he managed to make a stunning four passes into the final third, the joint most of any player, as well as 5 Ball recoveries, helping out the other midfielders who may’ve lost their footing or had a moment of misjudgement. 

Constantly, he appears to be in the right place at the right time and, in all honesty, is likely one of the few reasons that the Hammers haven’t fallen further than we already have. 

To further picture how immense he was and how he quite literally was everywhere, he covered 11.66km, and given that he covered that amount of distance and was informed not to attack, it goes to show how much more he could’ve covered if he wanted to, a serious player. 

One thing’s for certain, we certainly won’t be needing a holding midfielder in the January window because fortunately we already have quality there and with the right players around him, Fernandes certainly could reach even better heights than he already is achieving at the moment.