Felipe Anderson Admits He Initially Struggled to Adjust to the Premier League's High Demands

West Ham's Brazilian winger Felipe Anderson has admitted he struggled with the demands of the Premier League after coming to England this summer.

Anderson came to West Ham in a £42m from Lazio but initially looked out of depth in the Premier League, failing to meet the demands expected with such a high transfer fee. The Brazilian has improved dramatically over the last few games and showed his true colours with a dynamic man of the match display in West Ham's 4-2 win over Burnley, scoring two goals.

The winger had been accused of lacking match fitness having been substituted six times already this season. "The Premier League is really hard, really strong and everybody is really strong," Anderson told West Ham's website.

"I had to adapt and my team-mates always told me they had faith in me regardless if I played well or badly, and that has been really important for my adaptation and to be able to show my game."

West Ham secured a much needed win over the Clarets, their first in five fixtures, with Anderson scoring two goals, including the go-ahead strike in the 84th minute. "At 1-1 we believed we could win it, I scored and they equalised again and for some seconds we couldn't believe it," added Anderson.

"But we are a team that fights until the very end, that believe in themselves and that helped us stay in the game. It's better to work with a win, we have confidence and we want to get more."

West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini said of Anderson last week: "He has good moments in games, bad moments as well, but he is not the first player who will need some time to adapt to the Premier League," when speaking to teamtalk. 

The Hammers boss has said he expected a performance out of Felipe Anderson, stating after the Burnley game: "He knew what he must do and he has 100 per cent commitment for the club, so I was absolutely sure he was going to produce this performance in this game."