West Ham United’s Brazilian forward Felipe Anderson has wasted little time in settling into life in the Premier League – topping an index of the league’s creative players.
The Hammers had a good idea of what they were getting when they broke their transfer record to secure the 25-year-old in July – his tally of six completed runs per game last season was beaten only by Eden Hazard and Neymar from the top five leagues in Europe – and he has shown that form right from the off in Claret & Blue.
Felipe Anderson opened his goalscoring account for the club in last month’s 3-1 victory against Manchester United, but his role in creating chances for others has also caught the eye.
Over the last four Premier League gameweeks, Felipe Anderson has laid on 13 chances for his teammates, along with delivering nine successful crosses.
Only Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson can match those numbers over the same period, although the West Ham’s No8’s greater threat overall sees him top the ICT creativity index.
The only surprise is that the former Lazio man is yet to register an assist for the Hammers, but with the level of opportunities he is creating, that can only be a matter of time.
West Ham’s effectiveness overall has gone up a notch over the same period – having scored only two goals in their first four Premier League games, they have notched six times over the next four – with Felipe Anderson’s probing as part of a front three proving key to that.
The West Ham No8 is sure that improvement will continue at great pace over the coming months. He said: “We needed to know each other better. Now, with time, it is already happening and I think we will improve even more, with more work I think we can grow a lot as a team. We are on the right path.
“Every game we are playing we are growing, and I think we are going to go very far. But I do not want to think too much about the future, now the idea is to improve each game and continue on the right track.”
