Javi Gracia declared himself happy with the performance of new arrival Gerard Deulofeu as the Barcelona loanee impressed on his debut against Stoke.

The Spaniard had only met up with his team-mates barely a day before the game at the bet365 Stadium, but was their brightest attacking player and was unlucky not to register a debut assist after half-time.

Deulofeu would have been a bench cert under predecessor Marco Silva, but Gracia had no issue in throwing in his new signing from the off.

Gracia said: "I think Deulofeu’s debut was not easy for him, playing here. But Gerard is a very good player, the team have made him very welcome, and it’s been easy for him to slot in already. He's only been here for a day.

"Many things have happened to the team, there are a lot of injuries, and other players have gone out at the last moment - we needed to bring 18 players.

"We had only 17 and we called Stewart in the last moment, to complete the list. After that it’s down to choose the players who I think will be in the best condition for this game."