Andreas Pereira only managed 40-odd Premier League appearances across his eight-and-a-half years on the books at Manchester United, so perhaps he was simply trying to make up for lost time.
There was, after all, little other plausible explanation for the admirable commitment shown by the Fulham midfielder to ensuring that, one way or another, he would be the headline-maker here at the London Stadium.
Having opened the scoring inside five minutes of this London derby with a glorious effort into the roof of the net from an acute angle, Pereira then gifted West Ham a route back into the match with the most brainless of penalty concessions, the spot-kick converted by Jarrow Bowen before Gianlucca Scamacca’s lifted finish and Michail Antonio’s late clincher earned the hosts a 3-1 victory.
Scamacca’s goal, allowed to stand after a lengthy VAR check that left Fulham’s fans, players and coaching staff united in fury, was his third in as many games and a hat-trick of victories for David Moyes’ side in two competitions over the past nine days suggest the tide is turning on their season following a sluggish start.
Without the injured Aleksandar Mitrovic, scorer of almost half of Marco Silva’s side’s League goals prior to this derby, Fulham went ahead early through Pereira’s fine strike, an effort of which Mitrovic or any of the top flight’s other elite finishers would have been proud.
West Ham had not started and almost trailed by two as Dan James cracked an effort off the crossbar, but gradually the home side - and crowd - were lifted out of their Sunday afternoon slumber.
Lucas Paqueta, whose signing looks more of a coup with each passing week, created two decent openings for Scamacca, before the Italian missed a glaring chance when heading Aaron Cresswell’s clip straight at Bernd Leno in the visiting goal.
Scamacca has hit his straps in recent weeks after being eased into the side following his £30.5million arrival from Sassuolo and his relationship with Paqueta already appears hugely exciting.
It looked the Hammers’ most likely source of a response until Pereira’s moronic intervention, the Brazilian warned twice by Chris Kavanagh over his grappling with Craig Dawson as Cresswell waited to deliver. Like a schoolboy testing a supply teacher’s resolve, Pereira was foolishly unperturbed but the referee proved no pushover, and when the Fulham man bit hard on the bait dangled by Dawson, Kavanagh pointed to the spot with a conviction that suggested even he had been irked by the nerve of the offender.
Penalties have been a long-standing problem for the Hammers but Bowen is providing a solution so far this term, sending Leno the wrong way for his second successful conversion of the campaign.
Cresswell teed up near-post chances for Paqueta and Scamacca early in the second-half and it was little surprise that the latter pair then combined to put the hosts ahead as Declan Rice fed the Brazilian playmaker and his clever dinked pass was then helped over Leno by Scamacca in similar fashion.
Scamacca’s celebration, or lack thereof, suggested he feared the strike would be chalked but the VAR proved first that he had just stayed onside and then, after plenty of deliberation, declined to ask Kavanagh to take a second look at a possible handball claim on the pitchside monitor.
Instead, next viewing came on the stadium’s two big screens, which prompted riotous anger from those of a Fulham persuasion, both on the field and off it, as arms gesticulated wildly towards the broadcast of the perceived injustice.
Silva was booked for his protests, which did little to quell them, and the Portuguese will not be best pleased with Leno and captain Tim Ream either, after their calamitous mix-up left Antonio with the ball and a gaping goal in stoppage time. It is with Pereira, though, that that the Fulham boss ought to be most frustrated.
