Xande Silva must build on Grady Diangana’s efforts with West Ham chance

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Having been left out of the fold for West Ham under 23s on Friday evening, Xande Silva is expected to be involved as West Ham face Crystal Palace on Saturday in what would be a first team debut for the 21-year-old.

After scoring seven goals in six Premier League 2 appearances this season, it is hard to argue that he has not earned his chance having fought back to fitness after a hamstring strain robbed him of his chance to take his bow against Macclesfield in the Carabao Cup.

The forward joined from Sporting Clube Portugal in the summer and has made an immediate impression, now seemingly set to step up into the first team and joining fellow youngster Grady Diangana.

Diangana has had many Premier League chances since bursting onto the scene against Macclesfield and the goal for Silva will be to emulate his young team-mate in establishing himself as a regular in the first team.

With the likes of Marko Arnautovic, Javier Hernandez, Andy Carroll and Lucas Perez for competition in attack, Silva will have his work cut out, but it was the same for Diangana. The Londoner competes with the likes of Michail Antonio, Robert Snodgrass, Andriy Yarmolenko and others on a weekly basis.

Silva can learn much from Diangana and the patience that Manuel Pellegrini has shown with him, but he will know that making an even stronger impact from the off will help his cause even more.