West Ham United U-23s fell to a thrilling 6-4 defeat at home to Manchester City on Sunday, but many fans have taken to Twitter to rave about the goalscoring display of new signing Xande Silva.
The Portuguese forward, brought in from Vitoria Guimaraes this summer, followed up his hat-trick against Spurs on debut with another goal against a rampant City side.
While he could not prevent defeat for the Hammers, fans still flocked to Twitter to heap praise on the 21-year-old after another scintillating display.
This is Futbol have rounded up some of the best tweets below:
Better than our whole first team
— Tom (@tomwhu13) August 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/mikebailey92/status/1031161603524386817
https://twitter.com/lethal_lanzini/status/1031161273046712321
Just start him against arsenal
— Joe (@frobojobo313183) August 19, 2018
This guy is actually no fluke
— BlowingBubbles (@sooonreturn) August 19, 2018
Why wasn't he at least on the bench he probably would have done more in 20mins than whole team par 2 did all game
— Lynda M Lynch (@Hammer50_4ever) August 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/ioanydwi/status/1031161299491799041
Xande Silva making his mark ? Promote him to the first team in January if he continues his form?? ?
— Reece ? (@brooksy2901) August 19, 2018
OPINION
These West Ham fans are obviously impressed by Silva’s start to life in east London, and it is hard to not agree. The Portuguese forward has taken to English football brilliantly with four goals in his first two games, and if he continues at this rate of development, will no doubt be given a first-team shot soon. That was always the plan for Manuel Pellegrini with regards to Silva, with the Chilean wanting the attacker to show his worth for the U-23s first before being handed a possible first-team shot at some point later in the season. At this rate however that shot will come sooner rather than later, especially if the Hammers attack continues to flounder as it has done in their first two games. Silva must now just knuckle down and continue to score goals, with that opportunity set to be handed to him if he does so.