Tottenham's new £14m striker Roman Pavlyuchenko admits he struggled in his Premiership debut against Aston Villa.

"Everything was unusual for me. It's a different kind of football, with a different speed," he told Izvestia daily newspaper. "I immediately realised that English football is much faster than in Russia. Our opponents didn't give me enough time to get to the ball properly.

"That's why I had practically no chance to score. So I'll have to keep it up and work on it. And about 20 minutes before the end, the strength started running out of me. My leg muscles felt unusually cramped up.

"But what I also felt was the amazing atmosphere of the Premier League. It's hard to describe. You should feel it. After each good pass or corner, people applaud, they even stand up from their seats to do it. It's really pleasant to play in such surroundings."

The 26 year-old international added: "I'm aware that Tottenham fans want me to be a replacement for Berbatov. I failed to score, so I'm not a proper replacement for him - yet. He was a key player and that means that if the Spurs people want me to replace him, they must believe in me so I hope that I'll manage to help the team.

"But I have mixed emotions now. We lost and that means the result was bad for us. As for my own performance... It was probably OK for the very first game. In London I'm happy about everything - except for Tottenham's position at the bottom of the table."