Roberto Soldado admits his Tottenham spell was not as expected after La Liga impressive start

Villarreal new striker Roberto Soldado has claimed British media "are right" to criticise him, after admitting his time at Tottenham was not as he expected. The Spanish striker looked ready to put his nightmare spell at White Hart Lane behind him, after starting his new adventure at Villarreal with two goals and two assists in two games.

The striker, 30, moved to North London in the summer of 2014 for around £26m ($40m) after garnering a reputation as one of the most clinical strikers in Europe during his time in La Liga, scoring 24 goals in his final campaign at Valencia. But the Spaniard returned to his homeland earlier this month to play for Villarreal after he failed to replicate those stats during his two seasons in the Premier League, where he just scored 16 goals in 76 appearances.

Soldado has already began to repay the faith of Marcelino Garcia Toral after having scored two goals and provided two assists in his first two games. Having scored the only goal of Villarreal in the La Liga 1-1 draw opener against Betis, the Spaniard netted the equaliser before assisting Cedric Bakambu for another two as his side beat Espanyol 3-1 on Friday night.

The Mirror newspaper mocked Soldado in its Twitter account after expressing their surprise for his goals against Betis and Espanyol, saying "BOBBY SOLDIER scores again. Asteroid predicted to destroy Earth next month. Just sayin'."

But Soldado doesn't look bother about that jokes. When questioned about the tweet during an interview with Cadena Cope, he said: "You have to take it with humour and in the best possible way.

"They are right to say that because my performances there were not good so I have to accept that. There is nothing like laugh at yourself"

The Spaniard is determined to move on from the spell and hoping to continue his good run in the coming games to even return to the national team in the future. The striker indeed claims that Villarreal fans are yet to see the best of him.

"I am very happy because a striker always wants to score goals and especially after the season I had in England. It is very important to start this way but especially because the goals are helping the team to win.

"But the new signings like me still need to get the form of the rest. We still have many tactical concepts to learn from what the manager wants. My pre-season season has not been normal and I need to get fit to give more to the team. I am still far from my best level but I wish to score more goals and maybe in the future be with the national team again."