Town winger Jack Clarke says he has been impressed with how quickly summer signing Emersonn has adapted to life in the Premier League.

Brazilian striker Emersonn became the Blues’ first new arrival of the summer in early July, joining from French side Toulouse for an initial fee of £24 million.

Despite Town’s further recruitment drive under new boss Gary O’Neil, that transfer remains a club record and was among a total outlay of around £190 million following promotion from the Championship last season.

Emersonn’s single campaign in France last term was his first full year of experience in top-flight football, but the striker has impressed during his early weeks at Portman Road.

The 22-year-old has already netted twice in the Premier League, opening his account in the Blues’ victory over Sunderland on the opening day and scoring a powerful header against Crystal Palace from close range.

Clarke, who struck more goals last season than any other Town player, says Emersonn has made an excellent start to his career in English football.

“He’s done really well in the minutes and the games he’s played in so far,” he said. “He’s a big boy and he causes a lot of problems for defenders. He’s certainly got an eye for goal.

“He’s got a lot of raw ability that is about nurturing him and bringing out the best of him. I think he’s made a really good start and he’s done good things for the team so far.

“He ticks a lot of boxes in terms of what I’d want in front of me. You know what you’re going to get from him, he can do both sides of the game. He certainly makes my job a little bit easier.”

Joining so early in the transfer window came with its benefits, none more so than having more time to settle into the area and understand the ideas that O’Neil wants to instil into his side.

It was also Clarke’s first chance to have a full pre-season before a Premier League campaign, after he joined in late August during the Blues’ previous crack at playing in the top flight.

He said: “Especially with the new manager, to get six to seven weeks of learning and getting to know what he wants, how the team’s going to play, and how he wants us to operate obviously helps. It was good for everybody just to get that ticked off so we could start building momentum early.

“We played some good teams in pre-season and won a lot of games as well, which obviously helps. For me and everybody else here, it was good to start learning as soon as possible.”

Last time around was clearly difficult, with Town winning just four league matches and finishing on 22 points, a massive 16 points adrift of the required total for survival.

“I’m not sure if more resilient,” Clarke said on the differences this term. “I just think you learn from experience. It was the unknown for a lot of us last time, a lot of us were making the step up at the same time.

“Obviously just one season, I’m not saying that it’s loads and loads of experience, but you can draw back to certain things and certain bits and bobs. We learned how ruthless the league was last time around.

“With the manager coming in, he had a lot of experience within the league and he tries to point us in the right direction of what to do. You can draw back to and pinpoint little things that maybe went wrong last time that you can learn from.”

Clarke’s total of 16 goals last season were crucial in firing the Blues back to the Premier League, and highlighted his own ability to thrive at Championship level.

The former Sunderland winger knows the next step for his own game is proving that he can perform at a higher level and that he has a much higher ceiling than the second tier.

He said: “I appreciate getting called a Championship star, but I wouldn’t even consider myself one of them, to be honest. I just take it every day and every game as it comes, and just try to give the best version of myself.

“I don’t ever want to feel like I’m in a position of comfort, because that’s when you stop wanting to learn, stop wanting to achieve and stop wanting to get better. I’m just happy with the way things are going and hopefully I can still keep improving.”

Photo: Matchday Images