Pablo Fornals opens up on his West Ham start and what he needs to do to improve

Pablo Fornals was always going to need time to settle into life in the Premier League and the midfielder has admitted as such following the 1-1 draw with Brighton on Saturday.

West Ham got off the mark for the new campaign as they took a point away from the AMEX for the first time in three visits against their bogey side, Javier Hernandez putting the visitors into the lead just after the hour mark only to see if cancelled out by Leandro Trossard's goal four minutes later.

Following the 5-0 thumping by Man City on opening weekend, it was a case of "respect the point" for the Hammers as they picked up their first point of the new season in their second outing.

Spanish midfielder Fornals was handed his first competitive full debut against the Seagulls as he was one of five changes to the side they were thrashed by Man City, two of them injury enforced to Felipe Anderson and Sebastien Haller.

Fornals played 77 minutes before being replaced by Andriy Yarmolenko and had a mixed afternoon on the south coast but there is still plenty to come from the £25m man.

The former Villarreal star admitted he is finding the Premier League tough in the early but knows what he needs to do to get up to speed.

"It is a new league, a new experience, new stadiums and new rivals, Fornals told the official West Ham website post-match.

West Ham midfielder Pablo Fornals (Arfa Griffiths/West Ham United via Getty Images)

"It was a great match, a hard match and I’m happy for my first point in this league.

"It was very hard for me. I need to play more games to really understand the new game and my new team more.

"Many people talked about the characteristics of the Premier League, but you need to live these things to understand this league. It’s so hard, very difficult, and whatever team you play against in this league is very competitive."

The Hammers - and Fornals - are looking to pick up their first win of the new season this weekend as they travel to Watford to take on a side who are winless in their last five Premier League games in 2018/19 and 2019/20, one of those defeats coming on the final day of last season to West Ham at Vicarage Road.