It's taken some time, but West Ham fans are beginning to appreciate why their club paid a club-record fee of up to £42million for Felipe Anderson last summer.

The Brazilian has had his problems adjusting to the intensity and physicality of the Premier League following his move from Lazio, but was the outstanding player in the club’s recent 4-2 win over Burnley — scoring twice — before finding the net again in the 1-1 draw at Huddersfield.

On Saturday, the player regarded as one of the quickest in Serie A will be hoping to show a clean pair of heels to the defenders of the team who have scored 15 goals in their last three games — Manchester City.

Anderson is not only relishing the challenge, as he says in an article in the club’s match day programme, he wants to go on improving and follow in the footsteps of a true West Ham and Lazio legend, Paolo Di Canio.

“I saw him many times and knew his importance there and here,” says the 25-year-old Anderson. “I want to follow in his steps, play like him and earn a reputation like him. He was a great player and I want to follow that.”

Anderson knows, though, that he still has much to do to get anywhere near close to Di Canio’s influence at West Ham. “Yes, I still need to adapt a bit to the high intensity because it’s difficult,” he said. “But God helped me get here and gave me the strength to be happy and work harder and improve, so I will keep working and keep improving to be a better player.

“In Italy, the tempo is slower and the teams focus a lot on tactics. Here, the intensity and aggression is permanent. If you’re losing or winning you can’t stop, you need to keep working. There’s always players behind the ball and it’s difficult at times but you need to take care of your body to do better in the tough games.”

The Brazilian also says that West Ham’s Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini’s faith in his ability has been crucial.

“It was very important for me to know he trusts me and believes in me and that I can be the player he wants me to be,” he said. “He gives me peace on the pitch when things aren’t going well and it gives me strength to keep working even when games aren’t going well for me personally.”

Anderson won a gold medal in the 2016 Olympic tournament in his home country, playing in the Final as Brazil beat Germany 5-4 on penalties following a 1-1 draw. “The Olympics was a great memory as it was the one thing missing for Brazil,” he said. “We wanted to give it to the people who have given so much to us and so it was the perfect gift for them.”

For now, the boy who played in bare feet on the streets of his home town of Santa Maria is fully focused on tomorrow’s challenge. “Yes, we play against one of the best teams in world, who play beautiful football,” he said. “It will be difficult but it’s at home and we are on the up, with the team more compact. We are working very hard to improve and get a good result against a tough team. All players want to play in these big games. They are games with great quality and great players.

“It will be very tense because we want the result. We have to be awake for 95 minutes because these games decide how our season progresses and how we want to move on as a team.

“Manchester City are one of the best in the world. I love teams that play with the ball always, similar to Napoli and Chelsea. At City, there’s something different, something more that makes them such a threat.

“We need to know we are strong and we have a great team. We have beaten big teams and we can play a great game. We’ve done it before. We need to be more mature as a team and how we start games. on Saturday, we can start to show that and keep going.”

Felipe Anderson was speaking to West Ham United’s official programme, which is available to download from iTunes, from programmemaster.com or to buy at London Stadium.