Thursday 18 September 2008

Spurs' Pavlyuchenko: 'I Failed To Score, So Im Not Berbatov's Replacement Yet'

Tottenham Hotspur’s new signing Roman Pavlyuchenko has admitted that football in the Premier League is a lot faster to the football he was playing in the Russian League with Spartak Moscow, but has revealed that he felt the “amazing Atmosphere of the Premier League” on his debut against Aston Villa on Monday night.

26-year-old Pavlyuchenko made his debut for Spurs in the 2-1 defeat at White Hart Lane by the Villans, but despite failing to score for the North London club, the Russian International believes he will fill the void left by Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov, once he starts to find the net for Tottenham.

“Everything was unusual for me,” he told Izvestia daily newspaper.

“It's a different kind of football, with a different speed... 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. 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.

“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.”

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