Van der Gouw: Antony has special qualities

Latching onto Marcus Rashford's pass against Arsenal, our new recruit slotted the ball past Aaron Ramsdale, to hand United the lead and lift the proverbial roof off in M16 on the way to victory last weekend. He followed it up with another start, in the Europa League against Real Sociedad.

Adapting to life here in the Premier League is often something that is widely discussed with foreign players, with the sheer physicality and the pace of the game sometimes hard for some to get to grips with.

Antony has, however, already shown the wider world his capabilities in a red shirt, with van der Gouw insisting sometimes all that matters is how strong of a character a player can be.

''I think, for every player, when you arrive for a certain amount of money people already have an expectation,'' the 59-year-old began, speaking to BBC 5 Live.

''The question-mark is around how do you deal with the pressure of so much money and how quickly do you perform to what the people expect. 

''If he will come on and he will play a few games, he will show his qualities and the pressure will go. If he is not performing, then people start to talk about it.

''He is a young player, he is only 22 years old, so maybe that makes it a little bit easier for him as well because, if you are young, you are more focused on the football.’’ 

Growing up in Sao Paulo, Antony has had a superb rise to the very top, whilst also boasting an impressive nine caps for his national team too along the way so far.

His dream start with United will hopefully provide a positive springboard to build upon, with our hopes of success this season boiling down repeating to the sort of team performances we have seen domestically in recent weeks.

Erik ten Hag is a manager who, of course, our no.21 knows really well with from their time spent together at Ajax, with his footballing pedigree fine-tuned whilst in Amsterdam.

''I saw at Ajax [how] he became a rising start, he has all the qualities,'' added former United goalkeeper van der Gouw.

''He’s brave and, if you know the background of where he is coming from, it makes it easier to understand.

''It is also the connection with the manager with Erik ten Hag that makes it easier, Erik trusts him and gives him confidence. That will help a lot along the way.''