Every single Premier League side barring Tottenham Hotspur will have a pretty good idea of who their signing of the season has been this campaign. For West Ham, Lukas Fabianski and Felipe Anderson are certainly up there whilst at Craven Cottage, Andre Schurrle and Aleksandar Mitrovic have been the star buys.
The two sides will be meeting at The London Stadium and ahead of the game, we’re previewing Schurrle and Anderson to see who’s more likely to swing the game in favour of their side. West Ham’s Brazilian has been an incredible addition to this West Ham side, whilst Schurrle has shown glimpses of the talent that saw him win the World Cup with Germany in 2014 and this will be an intriguing matchup.
ANDRE SCHURRLE
The German winger is one of the only reasons why Fulham aren’t dead and buried alongside Huddersfield this season. The Cottagers sit eight points from safety and whilst most would say they have no chance, if they can tighten up their leaky defence and keep playing through Schurrle going forward then they’ll have a real chance of enjoying consecutive Premier League campaigns.
In 22 Premier League outings the Fulham man has bagged six times, including an absolute stunner against Burnley which won the Premier League goal of the month award for January. However, despite that incredible goal the Cottagers went on to shoot themselves in the foot, scoring two own-goals as they fell to a 2-1 defeat. It’s fair to say that the 28-year-old has been a success so far, and it’s hard to pin the club’s bad form on the German.
TT GRADE: B
FELIPE ANDERSON
As far as star signings from abroad go when you see a side like West Ham fork out a massive a fee of £41 million for a young Brazilian from Lazio, the danger is that they’ll flop. More than a few players have made the jump from Serie A, La Liga, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 to play in England and have crumbled under the pressure given the tempo of the Premier League, yet Felipe Anderson has thrived.
In an exciting West Ham side the 25-year-old has put doubts surrounding consistency from his Lazio days behind him and stepped up under Manuel Pellegrini. More than a few travelling fans have left the London Stadium dazzled by his brilliance and in 26 league games his tally of eight goals and three assists is mightily impressive given he’s deployed out on the left of the Irons’ attack.
TT GRADE: A+
TT VERDICT:
With Felipe Anderson and Schurrle going head to head in what promises to be an entertaining London derby, both sets of fans will be pinning their hopes on the two stars. Given the way Fulham defend though, Anderson could be set to have a field day whilst Schurrle will be left feeding off scraps in a game that the bookies will be surely backing West Ham to take all three points from.
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