West Ham United’s Joao Mario made his first Premier League appearance on Tuesday night.
West Ham United manager David Moyes has told Football.London that he felt Joao Mario played ‘really well’ against Crystal Palace on Tuesday night.
The Hammers took on Palace as they looked to bounce back from Saturday’s 2-0 FA Cup defeat at Wigan Athletic, but fell behind at the London Stadium when Christian Benteke headed home Andros Townsend’s cross.
West Ham did get back into the game though, with Mark Noble scoring from the penalty spot following a foul on Javier Hernandez, and 1-1 is how it stayed between the two London rivals.
Andros Townsend of Crystal Palace is tackled by Joao Mario of West Ham United
It’s now just one defeat in the last 10 Premier League games for West Ham, with Moyes turning the tide at the London Stadium despite only having the one new signing to call upon.
Whilst West Ham are attempting to push through deals on transfer deadline day, Moyes only had Joao Mario as a new arrival to count on against Palace, with the Portugal international making his Premier League debut.
Mario, 25, joined West Ham on loan from Inter Milan until the end of the season last week, and after playing against Wigan, he started his Premier League career on Tuesday night.
Joao Mario of West Ham United
After the game, Moyes told Football.London that he felt Mario did ‘really well’ against Palace, praising his engine and his quality on the ball, giving fans encouragement that he will be an important addition.
“I thought he done really well tonight,” said Moyes. “I think for someone to come in and go straight into a Premier League side, we didn’t really have enough to say ‘you’re only going to play 60 minutes’ but he didn’t look as if he needed it, he looked as if he had a diesel engine, he looked as if he could get up and down and cover the ground easily.”
“He played like a really good footballer tonight and helped make the goal, I thought it was a really good debut for someone who’s come from Portugal, Italy. I thought he played really well tonight,” he added.
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