West Ham United defender Matt Taylor has set survival as his side's number one priority next season.

The Hammers returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking via the playoffs last season, and with a number of players who have already had experience in the top flight among their ranks, coupled with the success of last year's promoted teams, expectations are high at Upton Park.

However, Taylor believes that every team outside the top six will have a primary objective of getting to 40 points.

"From previous experience, when you get promoted or are a team that has less financial resources than the top teams in the league, you want to stay up first and foremost," said the 30-year-old.

"That will be the first aim, as it will be for the teams not in the top six this season. We want to make sure we get to that magical 40 points as soon as possible and, if you look at the teams who came up last season like Swansea and Norwich, then you see that anything is possible.

"We don't want to talk too much about where we want to finish next year - obviously we want to stay in the Premier League and if we can achieve that as quickly as possible then that would be a good season."

Taylor joined West Ham last summer for an undisclosed fee.