Things could hardly have got off to a better start for Marco Silva at Fulham, with the 44-year-old manager securing a number of impressive arrivals at Craven Cottage in the summer transfer window, as well as seeing his side top the Championship table going into the international break.
Regarding the Cottagers' summer transfer business, Silva sealed the signings of Harry Wilson, Rodrigo Muniz, Paulo Gazzaniga, Nathaniel Chalobah and Domingos Quina, all of whom represent either an upgrade on a player the Portuguese manager previously had in a position or simply adding further depth to a particular area of his team.
Meanwhile, on the pitch, Fulham have dropped just two points over their opening five games of the Championship season - as well as scoring a league-high 12 goals and conceding a joint league-low three goals - results that have left the club at the top of the second-tier standings.
As such, it is perhaps to be expected that a number of Fulham's players have performed well this season, however, rather than any of the new signings topping the club's performance charts - such as Harry Wilson, who has highly impressed since joining the club - it is actually a player who looked as if he could have been on his way out of west London this summer who has impressed most for the club thus far - Jean-Michael Seri.
Forget Wilson
As previously mentioned, Wilson has far from disappointed since making the move from Liverpool to Fulham this summer, with the winger scoring two goals, registering one assist and averaging a SofaScore match rating of 7.43 over his three Championship appearances for the Cottagers, however, the level of Seri's performances for Fulham has perhaps been the most surprising factor of the club's campaign so far.
Indeed, over his four Championship fixtures this term, the 30-year-old has made an average of 1.3 interceptions, 2.8 tackles, 0.8 clearances and won 5.5 duels per game.
The £3.6m-rated man has also impressed in a creative capacity, registering one assist, as well as making an average of 62.3 passes, 86.5 touches of the ball and 2.3 key passes per league appearance.
These returns have seen the player Xavi dubbed a "fantastic" talent earn a rather remarkable average SofaScore match rating of 7.60, not only ranking him as Silva's best performer in the second tier but also as the third-best player in the entirety of the division.
As such, while the Ivory Coast international may not have quite lived up to his £27m transfer fee just yet, the central midfielder certainly looks as if he could go on to play a starring role in Fulham's push for promotion this season, something that may not have appeared all that likely to the Craven Cottage faithful just a matter of weeks ago.
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