MOHAMED Elyounoussi is confident Saints will thrive in the Premier League in 2018/19, despite the concerning way they lost 3-0 to Championship Derby County in a pre-season friendly.

The new £16m attacking midfielder, who signed from Swiss side Basel in June as Ajax-bound Dusan Tadic’s replacement, made his first appearance in a Saints shirt in the Pride Park defeat.

The Norway international admits ‘heavy legs’ hindered Saints against Frank Lampard’s outfit but is sure Mark Hughes’ side are going to be raring to go come August 12, when Burnley visit St Mary’s on the Premier League’s opening day.

“The condition has to be much better. We’re getting there step by step but things have to go a bit quicker,” the 23-year-old, who turns 24 on August 4, said.

“That’s it in pre-season, you have heavy legs, you are tired from training. That’s normal and I think we’re going to train even harder until it starts and then we’ll have fresh legs.”

“We’ve had a really tough week, a lot of tough training and everybody’s got heavy legs a little bit but that’s preparation and how it should be,” he added.

“We’re really confident that we’re going to be ready from the first minute when it really matters.”

Elyounoussi can’t wait to test himself in the Premier League, having flavoured the level of the English game against Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal in Champions League games for Basel.

The former Molde man played at Wembley in a friendly against England in September 2014 and was also trained by former Three Lions striker Brian Deane, who played for Sheffield United and Leeds in the 1990s, at his first club Sarpsborg 08 in Norway, so is clued-up on English football.

“To move to the Premier League is a big step and a good step,” he said.

“I’ve always enjoyed watching the Premier League and being in Basel I played a couple of times against teams from the Premier League in the Champions League.

“I know the level, I know the teams here. I’m confident we’re going to do quite good this year.”

Elyounoussi got his first game minutes under his belt in the Derby game and is looking forward to really shaping himself up ahead of the new campaign.

“I feel good, my condition is really good and I’m ready whenever I’m needed,” he said.

“Today for 45 minutes but, of course, I wanted to play more but the legs feel good and fresh, so I’m excited to get going and to prepare ourselves even more and to get started.”

Elyounoussi has barely had time to settle in on the South Coast yet.

The Norwegian was with Saints in China and is now in France for another pre-season camp after a trip to Derby on Saturday.

“I haven’t seen much really, it’s true,” he said, when asked if he'd had time to really settle in Southampton.

“It’s been a lot of travelling back and forth, but now I’m looking forward to going to France and to have a good week there, so we can prepare ourselves even better.”