Emile Smith Rowe: Who can Aston Villa target if they miss out on Arsenal midfielder?
By A. Aden
Matheus Pereira (25) – West Bromwich Albion
West Brom’s most prized possession this summer. No question about it. The left-footed attacker who had many admirers dating back to his short loan cameo in the Bundesliga with FC Nürnberg and lit the Premier League on fire.
All English Premier League
Outperforming in an underachievers situation, Pereira registered 11 goals and 6 assists in just over 2500 minutes of game time.
Whilst a near £40M splurge had West Brom thinking a season much different from other years in the Premier League, it was the £7M man from Sporting CP who took the reigns from the beginning.
Look back at any of the team’s wins this past season and you will find a near monster performance from the Brazilian.
One that pops up in people’s minds would be the 5-2 thrashing of Chelsea where he netted twice and provided an additional two assists, coupled with 3 key passes.
As we mentioned the xA of the likes of Dwight McNeil earlier, Pereira registers a lower score of 5.4 and clocks in at just 0.2 lower than Jack Grealish in npxG (non-Penalty expected goals).
His ability to play his strikers in behind the defenders is a real skill that would compliment the likes of Ollie Watkins greatly. Pereira ranks in the 94th percentile in through balls with 0.38 per 90. An average of 2.24 completed passes into the final third falls just under the 3.39 of Grealish (per90).
His normative xG rating of 7.2 also puts him sixth in the league for midfielders, ranking under the likes of Fernandes, de Bruyne, Gundogan, Soucek and Son. Great company to be in. Hopefully, we get to see him back in the Premier League and a fee of <£15-20M would suffice.