Jesse Lingard's fine start to life in a West Ham shirt just got even better after the England international was awarded the EA Sports Premier League Player of the Month award for April.
The West Ham man had been nominated for the award in both February and March but made it third time lucky in April when he picked up the gong for the first time in his career.
Lingard has had a phenomenal 2021 in the Claret and Blue and his April was sublime, scoring four and assisting one in his four matches. The highlight coming with a superb solo goal at Molineux as he ran past half of the Wolves team before slotting home with his left foot.
Lingard was thrilled to have won the accolade.
"It’s amazing," he told the club website.
"It’s the first time in my career that I’ve received this award and I’d obviously like to thank the fans for voting, my teammates and staff for helping me get there.
"It’s been a long road and I’ve been nominated the last two months and even getting nominated was a great feeling for me as I want to be up there with the best and competing for the best awards."
Lingard's loan spell at the London Stadium has seen the 28-year-old score nine times in 13 appearances and force his way back into Gareth Southgate's England squad. The attacking-midfielder believes he is at the top of his game right now.
"I definitely think I'm in the best form of my career. I’ve always wanted to work on consistency in my game and I think it’s come at a good time. Playing regular football always helps and I want to improve every game and try and help the team get as many wins as possible," he said.
Lingard highlighted his performance against Wolves as his favourite of the month but added the near comeback at Newcastle with only ten men was a sign of the character the squad possesses.
"I would probably say the Wolves game, obviously with my goal and assist as well," he said. "I felt we started that game really well. Obviously, we let them back into the game but we managed to ride it out and we had the composure to see the game out and it was a massive three points.
"I’d touch on the Newcastle game as well. Under very difficult circumstances after the red card, I thought we had the bottle and that character and team spirit to come back and try and claw something back.
"We got it back to 2-2 but a lapse in concentration and conceding the third goal was obviously disappointing, but we showed great character in that game."
