West Ham new boy has nothing to prove on PL return

Matt Stead

Havard Nordtveit insists he has nothing to prove after returning to England to play for West Ham.

The 26-year-old midfielder joined the Hammers on a free transfer from Borussia Monchengladbach on July 1, having previously been on the books at Arsenal.

Now, after more than five years in Germany, Nordtveit is back in London and ready to finally test himself in the Premier League after playing in both of West Ham’s Europa League qualifiers against NK Domzale – including Thursday’s 3-0 victory in the club’s opening match at the London Stadium.

The Norway international never made an appearance for the Gunners’ first team in a three-year spell at the Emirates Stadium, despite captaining their reserve side during his time in north London.

But he does not feel he has demonstrate his abilities after his time at Arsenal, and instead he is ready to draw on his Champions League and Bundesliga experience to help Slaven Bilic’s side.

When asked if he had come back to England with something to prove, he said: “No, I had five and a half quite good years in Germany.

“Now I’ve played in Bundesliga I know how that league is and I want to try to get as many games as possible in the Premier League and also the other cups and everything here with West Ham. It’s football.

“Of course, coming from Germany to England I’m still trying to adapt to the football a little bit but so far, so good. I’m really happy to be a part of the Hammers and looking forward to playing many more games.”

Nordtveit, who can also operate as a defender, signed a five-year contract with the Hammers and spoke at the time the deal was announced of his excitement about West Ham’s impending move to the new stadium.

Now he has sampled it for the first time as the Hammers opened their account at the former Olympic Stadium by soundly beating Domzale courtesy of a Cheikhou Kouyate brace and a first for the club for Sofiane Feghouli.

Having been 2-1 down from the first leg, a strong showing in front of 54,000 fans means Bilic’s side now face Romanian champions Astra Giurgiu in a play-off round to reach the Europa League group stage.

Nordtveit is looking forward to more nights under the lights of the London Stadium.

“I felt comfortable from the first minute,” he added.

“I watched this stadium a couple of weeks ago so when you see all the work that’s come together and I thought it might be too far from the fans but you heard them when we walked in.

“(It was a special night) not only for me but for the whole team, with the ‘Bubbles’ song on when you walk out there’s always something special and also the crowd were fantastic, so we’re looking forward to more of those games.”