Big-money summer signing Dimitri Payet is chomping at the bit to make his competitive debut for West Ham United in the UEFA Europa League and hopes to become the king provider at the Boleyn Ground.
The Hammers welcome Romanian outfit FC Astra Giurgiu to east London on Thursday night in the competition’s third qualifying round, with another sell-out crowd expected under the lights.
Following a stunning brace in first Hammers at outing at Southend, the Frenchman impressed at Charlton Athletic at the weekend too, and the 28-year-old is hoping to add some firepower in the coming weeks and months.
Payet said: “I hope that Thursday will be my first official game for West Ham and at home too, so that will be a pleasure for me to begin.
“It's an important match, because it's qualification for the Europa League, the first objective is to qualify, so it's very good.
“My first match went very well, the second too, so it bodes well for what's to come, but I've got to continue like that.
“To win games you have to score goals, so for sure my work is to help my attackers and to put them in good positions to score goals.”
It is a case of so far so good for Payet, who already feels at home with the Hammers. The French international is enjoying working under new boss Slaven Bilic too, who continues to impress his football philosophy on the group.
He continued: “For the time being it's all going well, we're preparing well for the new season, there are obviously a lot of matches at the moment and so the squad is still a little bit separated.
“Everyone's done what they could to help me feel settled in the group and so at the moment I'm training well here.
“We have a coach who is quite close to the players who has his own philosophy which is based on playing and playing with the ball on the floor, building from the back. It's something that's very good for us.
“The coach has his ideas and then it's to the group to integrate them in training and in the games.”
Buy your tickets for the visit of FC Astra on Thursday now! Adult tickets are priced at just £10 and Under-16s £5 at whufcboxoffice.com.