Arthur Masuaku made an instant impact on his return to the West Ham United team at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night, assisting Pablo Fornals’ 14th-minute goal to help his team to a thrilling 3-2 Premier League victory.
Masuaku was back in the side after missing four months of the campaign after undergoing surgery to fix a long-standing knee problem and the DR Congo wing-back is keen to make up for lost time over the season’s finishing stretch.
The win at Wolves, with Jesse Lingard and Jarrod Bowen netting either side of that Fornals strike, before the Hammers had to hold off a home comeback, took Masuaku’s team back into the Premier League’s top four, and the 27-year-old could not hide his delight at being able to play his part once more.
“It was an unbelievable game and I’m happy to be able to be back out there and help the team as much as I can,” he told West Ham TV.
“I knew it was going to be a tough game – coming here to play against Wolverhampton is always hard – but we’ve done the job, we’ve got three points and we’re fourth in the league. It’s very good for us and for the fans as well.
“It was an intense match. I’m going to be honest, I was tired quickly, but I knew I had to get through that and now I’m looking forward to the next game. I’m very excited to be back and a part of this.
“We’ll work this week and hopefully get the three points against Leicester on Sunday.”
Masuaku’s 67 minutes on the pitch came after a period recuperating from a procedure to correct a long-standing knee problem before Christmas, and was the reward for plenty of hard work at the Rush Green training ground.
“I was playing with a sore knee for a year-and-a-half and I couldn’t play like that any longer,” he explained. “I decided to have a small operation, which was very good and now I don’t have any issues any more.
“I worked hard in the gym and on the pitch to get back to full fitness and now I feel good.”
Masuaku’s assist for Fornals’ goal, which put the Hammers 2-0 up inside the game’s first 14 minutes, came after a superb piece of skill from Jesse Lingard to escape Nelson Semedo’s attentions in the corner.
Lingard was at the heart of the visitors’ threat throughout the night, with the England man also registering a superb solo goal and an assist for Jarrod Bowen in a stellar performance. Masuaku is delighted to share a pitch with the on-loan Manchester United man.
“For the second goal I just saw Jess doing his trick and then I saw the ball was a bit too long, so I ran onto it, saw Pablo and crossed. He scored and it was great,” he added.
“I just did my job, Pablo scored and I’m happy for the assist. We’ll go again on Sunday.
“Jesse has quality and I knew this since Man U. I’ve played against him in the past and I knew he’d come here and do his job. We enjoy playing with him and hopefully he’s going to keep going like this until the end of the season.”
