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Hands up if you saw that performance coming after the dismal opening day defeat to Newcastle?

West Ham finally got their Premier League campaign up and running with a superb 4-0 win over Wolves at the London Stadium on Sunday night, with goals from Jarrod Bowen (2), Sebastien Haller and an own goal from Raul Jimenez ensuring they got their first points of the season.

But whilst Bowen capped a fine individual performance with a brace – including an excellent run and finish for his first goal – it was Michail Antonio who set the tone for the Hammers and arguably stole the show.

Spot the fact from the fib: Are these Premier League records true or false?

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As per Sofascore, he won a mammoth 14 duels on Sunday which was a game-high, whilst he was also the most fouled player on the pitch, earning five free-kicks.

The 30-year-old never stopped fighting for the cause, and despite having to come up against Wolves’ back-three of Roman Saiss, Conor Coady and Wily Boly, he ran them ragged – the centre-back trio recorded a match rating of 6.2 or less.

Despite having a thankless task and often being asked to do a one-man job as the lone front-man, Antonio rose to the challenge with aplomb.

Even though he lost possession 21 times, it wasn’t for a lack of effort or ability, instead more an indicator of the kind of risks he was willing to take whenever he had the ball – it was no surprise that by the end of the game, his total of six completed dribbles were the highest of any Hammers ace.

So whilst Bowen may be the one to take all the headlines in the aftermath of a stunning victory, Antonio’s display was the epitome of everything that West Ham did well on the night.

Arsenal ended their summer transfer window with a bang by activating Thomas Partey’s £45m release clause and they squeezed him through late on deadline day.

Amongst all of the drama, it quickly emerged that the club wouldn’t be making a move for Lyon’s box-to-box playmaker Houssem Aouar, which could prove to be a costly decision as Mikel Arteta lacks extra creativity through the middle.

The Gunners’ no.10 Mesut Ozil is a forgotten man at London Colney as he’s been named as a shock absentee from their Europa League squad this week whilst there’s only so much you can ask Dani Ceballos to do.

Perhaps, at least until January, Arteta could dip into the club’s promising academy set-up for backup and there’s one name that stands out like a sore thumb – Charlie Patino.

Named in this year’s ‘Next Generation’ list on the Guardian, the 16-year-old has been lauded as a “generational talent” capable of reaching the very top.

Patino was poached from Luton Town aged just 11, thus resulting in lofty comparisons to Jack Wilshere, who was handed an Arsenal debut at 16 by Arsene Wenger.

Maybe the young sensation could become Arteta’s version of the former England maestro.

“With my knowledge of players coming through the Academy, I truely feel that Charlie is the best I have seen; even better than Jack Wilshere”

John Williamson to Gunnerstown.

It’s claimed that some believe Patino can dictate the game further forward in a number ten role, drawing similarities to Man City’s Phil Foden – a player coached by Arteta during his time under Pep Guardiola.

And the shrewd Gunners chief is evidently already a fan as the youngster has already trained with the first-team as recently as last month. He’s also set to be promoted to the U23 squad before the summer, so that should provide further encouragement over his potential.

With so many fixtures to deal with this campaign, we could well see Patino make the step up earlier than anticipated. He’d be the next Hale End talent to feature, following in the footsteps of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah.

AND in other news, How Arteta can fit Thomas Partey into his starting XI after dramatic deadline day swoop…

After signing from Lyon in the final few weeks of the summer transfer window, it’s been no surprise to see Aston Villa manager Dean Smith look to try and slowly ease Bertrand Traore into first-team action.

The Burkina Faso international has played just four times, with the majority of his action coming in the Carabao Cup – the winger has seen just nine minutes of Premier League football thus far for his new club, with a couple of very short cameos against the likes of Fulham and Liverpool.

But with the international break now over, Smith must surely be tempted to throw his big-money signing into his starting line-up, even despite seeing Villa thump Liverpool 7-2 last time out.

Speaking at the announcement of Traore’s signing, Smith said: “We’re delighted that Bertrand has chosen to come to Villa. He’s a player with immense talent who will really enhance our attacking options.”

With Leicester deploying a back-three in these first weeks of the new campaign, Traore’s ability to beat players one-and-one could be crucial to ensuring Villa don’t leave Ollie Watkins isolated and starved of service.

The former Lyon star averaged a very impressive 1.6 shots, 1.1 key passes and 1.4 dribbles per game for the French side last season, and the X-factor that he possesses could give Villa an out-ball on Sunday night.

In terms of average possession per game, Leicester rank fourth in the entire division with 55.2%. Brendan Rodgers has got his side looking to dominate the ball, so having a pacy outlet like Traore could be the kind of difference-maker that tilts the tie in Villa’s favour.

The pace and movement of a front-three of Traore, Ollie Watkins and Jack Grealish could cause havoc on the counter-attack, with the former’s directness and willingness to take players on being a potential game-changer.

Smith must surely consider starting his summer signing on Sunday.

And in other news, Villa must beat the competition to sign this EFL star.

Tottenham Hotspur are ready to do business this transfer window with Real Madrid duo Gareth Bale and Sergio Reguilon expected through the door and Daniel Levy could make one hell of a statement by adding a striker to that impressive swoop…

What’s the word?

According to the Express, Spurs boss Jose Mourinho wants to add Torino talisman Andrea Belotti to his squad to resolve their attacking problems before next month’s deadline.

They claim that the north London outfit are trying to secure the 26-year-old on an initial loan deal but the Serie A outfit want in excess of £50m for his services.

It’s no secret that the Portuguese boss is desperate for a second option upfront after Harry Kane’s injury last season exposed a serious lack of squad depth.

Just imagine…

Well, Spurs securing one of the most lethal finishers in Europe would certainly be one huge way to end their striker nightmare and he’d certainly be worth every penny of that £50m asking price.

Across the Serie A and Europa League last season, the Italian marksman bagged a whopping 22 goals in 42 appearances. He also averaged 3.2 aerials won, 2.9 shots, 1.3 dribbles and 1.2 key passes per game, via WhoScored, showing he’s more than just a prolific goalscorer.

Belotti can bring others into play and clearly provides relentless work rate – something echoed by Torino president Urbano Cairo, who labelled him a “real captain” who’s “dragging us through games.”

Meanwhile ex-England boss Fabio Capello once claimed that Belotti was “one of the best strikers in Europe,” before adding: “He knows how to move, he basically knows how to do everything. He’s fast, technically skilled and is probably better than [Gabriel] Batistuta.”

His playing style has been likened to that of Jamie Vardy, Didier Drogba and Andriy Shevchenko – even Sergio Aguero due to his movement off the ball.

Spurs’ recent freebie arrival Joe Hart is also a huge fan having enjoyed a loan spell in Turin back in 16/17 – “It’s hard to compare him to someone else because he’s special. He’s Belotti and that’s it,” he said.

Mourinho isn’t going to get a better all-round forward to provide genuine competition to Kane than Belotti, so he should absolutely push for Levy to seal this deal.

Just imagine a frontline of Bale, Son, Kane and Belotti. It would be an absolutely terrifying prospect for their league rivals.

AND in other news, Spurs could secure Mourinho his next Diego Costa with £5m swoop…

Glasgow Rangers have moved to confirm that their partnership with Castore does not include any other party after rumours had emerged that Sports Direct were still involved in some way.

On Wednesday, the company, owned by businessman and former Gers stakeholder Mike Ashley, shared an Instagram post saying they would sell the new Gers home shirt, which was released on the same day and made by Castore, “exclusively” from August 1st.

However, the Ibrox outfit’s hierarchy have quickly quashed any of those claims, releasing a statement saying:

“Following today’s unveiling of the 2020/21 home jersey, Rangers continues to look forward to their long term exclusive partnership with Castore, which, for the avoidance of doubt, is a direct agreement between those two companies with no other persons party to the deal.”

This should be fantastic news for the Glasgow Rangers supporters, with whom Ashley is not exactly the most popular figure for the part he has played in their commercial dealings in the past. The deal with Castore was meant to be a fresh start for the club – this statement appears to re-confirm that. The confusion is that Sports Direct will still be able to buy shirts directly from the club themselves and sell them on, just like any other such sports shop.

The club also revealed that the Ibrox Retail Store will receive a £250,000 renovation and will open on August 1st.

“The Ibrox Retail Store will undergo a £250,000 renovation and become a key venue for all Rangers supporters and on matchdays will be supported with further pop up stores within the Stadium.”

Following the announcement that 40,000 season tickets have been sold, it looks like a promising time to be a Gers fan.

Let us know what you think below!

The future of English football is very much up in the air at the moment, and with the ongoing pandemic putting a halt to the beautiful game for the foreseeable future there are plenty of questions still to be answered.

Promotion and relegation seem to be a hot topic at the moment, but even if everything goes ahead as normal, there is one club that have a big decision to make on a couple of big name players.

Indeed, upon Fulham’s relegation from the Premier League they had to balance their books and that meant selling players and loaning out big names to cut down their wage budget.

The Whites received £25m for Ryan Sessegnon in the summer, while Jean Micheal Seri and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa were sent out on loan.

Now, if the London club return to the Premier League they will have a decision to make on the aforementioned players, but what should they do?

It’s no secret that the two former Ligue 1 stars flopped during their first season at Craven Cottage, they were both named in FourFourTwo’s worst signings of the season list, but they did enough during their respective time at Nice and Marseille to warrant fees of over £20m being spent on them.

This season has been a chance for the pair to prove themselves once again as they were shipped out on loan, and they have made strides towards doing just that.

Anguissa has proven himself to be one of Europe’s best dribblers, making the fifth-most dribbles per game of any player in La Liga and even catching the eye of Real Madrid during his time at Villarreal.

Seri, on the other hand, is a player that seemed too good for Fulham when he first arrived.

The Ivorian had been heavily linked to Barcelona the prior summer, but upon his arrival at Craven Cottage, he looked more suited to League One than the Champions League.

Seri has stepped up this season with a pass accuracy of almost 90 percent and 1.5 key passes per game for Galatasaray, but then again, the Turkish League isn’t the best standard in the world.

If Fulham do go up, they will have a decision to make on these two.

Anguissa has more than earnt a chance to be handed another shot by Scott Parker, but Seri has a lot still to prove, and his future in England could well be decided by how he gets on in pre-season.

On this day four years ago West Ham fans were made to say goodbye to the Boleyn Ground ahead of a hugely controversial move to London Stadium in Stratford.

At the time, fans were carefully of optimistic of what a new 60,000 capacity stadium could help them achieve moving forward, but what has transpired since will have led to much larger opposition to the move had the fans known what a mess the stadium move was to cause.

The Boleyn Ground was a classic football ground with a reputation of being very intimidating for opposition players. It was the home of every single West Ham fan who had the pleasure of going there, but all they have now are fantastic memories of the great stadium.

So, to mark the four-year anniversary of that emphatic final match at Upton Park, we’ve put together the Ultimate Boleyn Ground quiz for Hammers fans to test their knowledge of the place they used to call ‘home’…

Good luck!

Name: Frankie Maguire

Club: Sheffield United

Date of Birth: 29 July 2003

Position: Midfielder

Frankie Maguire – his career so far

Frankie Maguire is one of the youngest bright talents that’s already dubbed to be a great success over at Sheffield United. The young midfielder is only 16 years of age and yet, it seems that he’s been impressing the right people at such a rate that the word has already spread through the media and possibly even other clubs.

But Maguire has been with the Blades since before the U12 level and has only recently signed a two-year scholarship deal after turning 16 in July 2019. Needless to say, he is still far too early into his development to be in the conversation for a possible first-team appearance or even to be knocking on the door for an opportunity within Chris Wilder’s squad.

Still, despite his young age and clearly lack of any kind of experience under his belt, the 16-year-old prodigy has gotten a taste of the U23 level action due to his sheer talent and potential that simply had to be tested against the older squads who would be more of a challenge for someone of his skill set.

Maguire progressed onto an apprenticeship at Sheffield United Academy, which is divided between his development as a footballer and also ensuring he continues his education, after finishing his studies at the UTC in June 2019.

So at the very moment, he is studying a BTEC Level 3 NVQ qualification in Sport along with an FA coaching qualification while also spending time ironing out his technical abilities, tactical knowledge and also working on his overall fitness.

For a youngster at the very beginning of his career, he’s taking big steps to ensure he’s ready once the opportunity arises. And given the talent he possesses, that opportunity might be just around the corner for the young gem.

Transfer latest

Since we are talking about a 16-year-old kid who’s still in the academy at the club, it doesn’t surprise that there are currently no transfer rumours or transfer news surrounding Maguire. The latest piece of Sheffield United news coming out of the camp was the signing of his two-year scholarship last year but other than that, the mill has gone silent.

Of course, the midfielder has been named as the top young talent at Sheffield United for the year 2019 by Guardian last year, which is definitely a big recognition of his potential and current state of development.

As time goes on and Maguire manages to tally more minutes under his belt in the development squads, we are bound to start hearing of him again.

Player profile

Not much footage is available for scouting when it comes to the young prodigy but what we can gather from the limited data that’s available is that Maguire is an industrious midfielder, good on the ball, fast on his feet and with a keen eye for a pass.

So far, he’s been excelling in the technical department and also showing a certain dose of maturity when it comes to decision making, leadership skills and overall mental prowess that seems to be developed beyond his young age.

But there is also the physical aspect and he is fitter and more aggressive than most of his peers, which mixes well with his great on the ball abilities. Maguire is quite tall as well and can be an asset when marking or tackling the ball away from the opposition players.

It does seem like he could transform into a great box-to-box midfielder in due time and is well on his way towards reaching the highest levels.

This article forms part of our Total Duds feature series, which is where Football Transfer Tavern takes a look at how a player has fared since being signed or sold, using statistical figures and statements from pundits to prove how bad a deal the club got.

Back in August 2016, Arsenal were looking to strengthen their attack and signed Spanish striker Lucas Perez from Deportivo de La Coruña for £18m, per Transfermarkt. The forward had just come off of his best season as he managed 17 goals and 10 assists in 36 La Liga appearances, and it looked like the Gunners had picked up a very prolific finisher.

He made 21 appearances in his first season in all competitions, scoring seven goals and registering five assists, per Transfermarkt, a decent start to his career in England. However, what didn’t bode well was the fact he only managed one Premier League goal in 11 games.

This seemed to be a worry for the club, too, and they decided to loan him back to Deportivo for the 2017/18 season where he managed nine goals and eight assists in all competitions. He managed a decnt goal tally on loan in Spain, but it wasn’t enough for supporters of Deportivo when he only managed five goals in his first 21 appearances, and there were pictures of graffiti from the fan base calling for him to leave the club halfway through the campaign when they were in the relegation zone.

It seemed that he couldn’t replicate his 2015/16 form which saw the Gunners sign him and hinted that maybe it was just a one-off and he couldn’t remain so consistent.

To be loaned out once more at the age of 29 highlighted that Arsenal didn’t see him as part of their plans, and when he returned to north London, fellow Premier League side West Ham bought him from the Gunners for £3.96m, per Transfermarkt.

Perez was only contracted to Arsenal for two years and his only appearances for the club were the 21 games he played in his debut season. That poor return, combined with the loss of just over £14m that the Gunners made from his transfers, highlights that he was an expensive dud at the Emirates Stadium.

Gunners fans, do you think Perez was a total dud? Comment below with your views!

This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

West Ham United have been nothing short of terrible in recent weeks.

Indeed, the Hammers haven’t won any of their previous seven games in all competitions, and they’ve suffered embarrassing defeats such as a 4-0 loss to Oxford United and a 3-0 loss to Burnley.

There are a number of factors that contribute to West Ham’s poor form, but one issue that has to be considered is the form of Sebastien Haller.

Haller’s struggles

The French striker has scored just once in his previous nine appearances, and while that sounds like a poor return that may not be all his fault.

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Haller is at his best when the ball is in the air, as he has won 6.9 aerial duels per game this season, but he’s simply not been receiving enough service from the wings.

Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko put in just 0.6 and 0.3 crosses per game respectively, and it seems as if they need to acclimatise to playing alongside a target man, and it seems as if the international break may help Yarmolenko in that pursuit.

Yarmolenko’s international partner

Fortunately, Yarmolenko can gain some extra experience of playing with a big man up top while he’s playing for Ukraine.

Indeed, Ukraine’s first-choice number nine is Roman Yaremchuk, and with the Genk forward standing one centimetre taller than the towering Haller he is a striker in a similar mould.

Yaremchuk is aerially dominant in the same way Haller is as six of his 12 goals for Genk last term came with his head.

Playing with the 23-year-old at international level will help Yarmolenko get used to playing alongside a target man, and that could potentially be a good thing for West Ham.