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West Ham’s new £16m striker has had a fabulous goal scoring record throughout his career. His ability whilst playing in the Premier League was recently put into context by OptaJoe on Twitter:

“130 - Javier Hernandez has the 5th best minutes per goal ratio in @premierleague history (min. 20 goals). Sharpshooter.”

That’s a remarkable level of performance. It is helped slightly by the fact that Chicharito would often make short substitute appearances for Manchester United and pinch a late goal, but all a striker can hope to do is score when given the chance.

He has had similarly good figures for his other clubs.

At Real Madrid, Hernández had less than ten full games worth of time on the pitch in La Liga. There’s no shame there when the likes of Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo are in the squad. That makes his tally of seven goals and four assists all the more impressive, and he scored every 122 minutes.

The West Ham new boy’s goal frequency at Bayer Leverkusen was slightly worse, but with a goal every 142 minutes his record would still put him into the Premier League’s top ten as per the above tweet.

Leverkusen may have finished third in his first season there, but they’re clearly not in the same class as Manchester United or Real Madrid, so it’s no surprise his rate dipped a little.

The Mexican is undoubtedly a penalty box predator. Only four of his 86 goals in league and continental competition since moving to Europe have been from outside the area. But just how good a finisher is he, and how does he compare to some recent Premier League greats?

To assess this, we can use a simple expected goals system.

Shots are broken down into four categories: penalties, other clear-cut chances (which Opta define as "a situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score usually in a one-on-one scenario or from very close range"), other shots in the box, and shots from outside the box.

(Image: Getty Images)

Each shot type is assigned a value based on the historical likelihood that it has been scored, and we can measure how many goals any player scores against their expected total from the shots they have had.

Chicharito does his best work inside the opposition area as we know, so we will focus on goals and shots in the box. Penalties are obviously separate from regular play, so to determine finishing ability we’ll exclude them.

This does Hernández a favour, as he has actually missed three of the six penalties he has taken in the league and Europe in the last seven seasons.

The following table shows players who have had at least 200 penalty box shots in the Premier League in the last six seasons. The exception is Chicharito, whose data also includes his time with Real and Leverkusen to ensure he has a sample of the required size.

These figures should make every West Ham supporter’s mouth water. If Bilic’s team can create good chances for Hernández, then his career history shows he can take care of the rest.

It’s important to take note of the numbers in the last column of the table. They show that the Mexican striker’s shots have, on average, been of the highest quality when compared to the other players on the list.

He is a good finisher, and his movement helps him to find space for top quality chances to come his way, but he has done so well throughout his career as his team mates have been able to lay great opportunities on for him.

(Image: PATRIK STOLLARZ/AFP/Getty Images)

This could be an issue for the Hammers. Only eight teams in the Premier League had fewer clear-cut chances than West Ham last season, so will Hernández receive the quality of service he needs?

Slaven’s side also struggled for creativity after Payet left; he created the most chances for the club in the league last season, despite leaving in January, and he set up at least twice as many opportunities as every other Hammer bar Manuel Lanzini.

But if West Ham can sort this potential creativity issue out, and fellow new boy Marko Arnautovic should definitely help here, then the stats suggest that Javier Hernández will make his £16m fee look like an absolute steal.