Northern Ireland international Callum Marshall is ‘thankful’ as he West Ham United debut against Arsenal at the Emirates on Saturday.

West Ham were a goal down away at Arsenal, and instead of Nuno opting to put on Callum Wilson to find an equaliser, he surprised everyone by bringing on young Callum Marshall on for his Premier League debut.

“The game’s just done, so it hasn’t really sunk in yet, but coming over from Northern Ireland, this is what I want to do, so I’m happy that the new manager has given me my [Premier League] debut and hopefully there’s more to come,” Marshall told West Ham TV.

“It’s been a long time coming, so I’m just happy that I got on the pitch. I’ve been on the bench a few times now. I was on the bench when David Moyes was here and then a couple of times under Graham Potter, but this is obviously the first time I’ve got on, so I’m just thankful to the gaffer.

“Obviously, he hasn’t seen much of me yet, but hopefully in the weeks to come when I get back from Northern Ireland duty, then hopefully he’ll get to see more of me and I can show him that I can affect games and bring a bit of energy, which I tried to do today, but it was a hard game to affect in the way the game was going.

The youngster wasn’t able to find an equaliser before Saka netted a penalty seven minutes after Marshall was introduced, but he certainly made more of an impact up there than Niclas Fullkrug.

The 20-year-old was his usual high energy and tempo self, He even want close to scoring a consolation goal near the end as his header went just over the bar.”I should have scored” said Marshall. “But it is what it is. Hopefully, if I get on again, I’ll put the ball in the back of the net and finally become a Premier League goalscorer.

“It’s obviously hard, it’s a different level, just the speed of the game, so trying to get pressure on the ball is hard, especially because we were already losing,” he explained. “We were in between a rock and hard place whether to press them or to sit in, so it was hard to get any pressure on them.

“I tried my best, and when the ball came up to me, I was just trying to win throw-ins and stuff. That’s all you can do in the situation. It was a great experience.”