West Ham United's Matt Taylor has admitted that Premier League survival is the club's priority next season.

The former Portsmouth midfielder said that he is hoping the Hammers can replicate what Swansea City and Norwich City achieved last season by avoiding relegation during their first season in the top flight.

"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," he said.

"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."

West Ham's Premier League season gets underway with a home game against Aston Villa on August 18.