Town striker Chuba Akpom says he always believed he would return to the Premier League and that he is determined to make an impact this season.

After joining the Blues on a permanent basis over the summer, Akpom made his first appearance in the top flight since February 2015, with the 11-year gap beaten only by Cristiano Ronaldo in the Premier League era.

The 30-year-old scored a stoppage-time consolation for his long-awaited first goal at the level during Town’s 5-2 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Despite his long spell away from the Premier League, which included stints abroad in Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands and France, Akpom always planned on making it back to England’s top division later in his career.

“I always had that drive in me to get back to the Prem,” he said. “For me, it’s the best league in the world. It’s back in the country where I was born and raised.

“It’s just a fantastic feeling to be here. For my family and friends to come and watch me play in the best league in the world, it’s an honour. I’m definitely grateful to be here.

“I definitely feel like I can compete here. We’re not just here for the experience, we’re actually here to make a difference and I’m here to make an impact as well. When the chance is there, I’ll try my best.”

Akpom’s career has not always been linear after a number of loan spells away from Arsenal, for whom he progressed through the academy.

Since leaving the Gunners, the forward won the Championship Golden Boot with Middlesbrough, which earned him a move to Ajax worth around £12 million.

Even now, Akpom says he takes inspiration from other elite strikers of a similar age and is still striving to improve as a footballer.

He said: “There’s always room for improvement. I feel as I’m getting older, I’m learning even more. I just want to be that type of player that gets better as they get older.

“I see the likes of Harry Kane and Karim Benzema, who won the Ballon d'Or in his 30s, and these players start to thrive in their 30s. I would love to be that type of player as well where I can be at the heights of my career.

“I’m all about goals, I’m all about being as close to the goal as possible. I definitely feel comfortable playing there.”

After impressing in pre-season as an out-and-out number nine, Akpom has perhaps been given a new lease of life under boss Gary O’Neil.

Of his new manager, the Blues frontman said: “He’s been top for me personally so far. Just little things like constantly giving me positive encouragement, team meetings, and highlighting where I’m going right. Showing me that if I keep going, I’m going to be a part of his plans.

“It’s still early doors, but the signs have been good so far and me and him have worked well to this point.

“We’ve brought fantastic players in, high-level players in a high-level training ground now as well. Top stadium and a top set of fans as well. There’s no excuse for us; the platform is there, we just have to make the most of it.”

One of those new arrivals is deadline day signing Zian Flemming, who completed an initial £17 million move to Portman Road in the dying minutes of the summer transfer window on Tuesday evening.

Alongside Brazilian club record signing Emersonn, the trio will battle it out for the role of spearheading O’Neil’s fresh attack for the campaign.

“It’s been good,” Akpom said of the new acquisitions. “It shows that the club wants to progress and it shows the club wants to compete. It’s only going to make the team stronger.

“Of course, I have the utmost respect for all the players that have got Ipswich to this point from League One and the Championship. They’ve had a fantastic core of players that have been here.

“Unfortunately most of them have left now, but we all have to show our respect because if they didn’t do what they did, we wouldn’t be here right now. I’m definitely grateful for that.

“New faces in the building are good because there’s a variety. There’s some people from different continents and stuff like that, so that’s definitely a positive.”

On whether he learnt any French or Dutch while abroad, Town striker added: “I wish I took lessons, but no. Maybe I can learn a few words from the lads now.”

Now in his second season in Suffolk, Akpom is fully settled into the area and says he takes great pride in seeing his son grow up watching him play in the Premier League.

“I want him to embrace every second of it,” he said. “That’s why I bring him into changing rooms and onto the pitch, I want him to see what it’s like.

“He definitely loves football. He asks me to go to the club shop and get him the home, away, training, travel, goalkeeping kit. I literally got every single kit that I could for him.

“That just shows how much he loves it and he embraces Ipswich’s football club as well. I’m definitely grateful for that.

“[Family] is super important. Everyone that was there on the weekend, people that have travelled all over the world to come and watch me play. Cold nights, nights where I’m on the bench and haven’t come on, they’ve travelled and they’ve always supported me.

“To see them there once I’m back in the Premier League again and we’ve got the win, these are the moments that I work hard for and train for. I love to see my family there when I’m thriving as well because they’re always supporting me when things are not going so well.”

Photo: Matchday Images