IT has taken Jordi Gomez far longer than expected to find a decent Tapas Restaurant since moving to Sunderland, but he has had no such problems adapting to life at the Stadium of Light.

The Spanish midfielder had to bide his time waiting for his chance in a Gus Poyet team and, after eventually being handed a Premier League start at the beginning of October, he has found himself playing more regularly.

Receiving more playing time in a red and white shirt has clearly helped him, but Gomez never felt uncomfortable in his unfamiliar North-East surroundings – even if he has struggled to find somewhere like home to eat.

And the Barcelona-born 29-year-old’s frustrations on the food front have not been helped by his reluctance to munch a British delicacy. “I haven’t found any good Spanish restaurants yet,” said Gomez, with a smile on his face.

“That’s been a problem for me. I won’t be opening any restaurant, but hopefully someone soon will somewhere so I can go. At the minute I am going for an Italian, Japanense, but not a Spanish one. I can’t even have fish and chips! I like fish and chips and English food, but it’s not very healthy ... sometimes it’s OK to eat but not often!”

Whatever diet Gomez is adhering to at Sunderland has helped him in to the Poyet first team picture. The free agent arrival from Wigan has looked more comfortable and important to the system over the last eight weeks and he will hope to face West Ham tomorrow.

But even during the earlier days following his move from the Latics, he was always happy with his decision. He said: “Since the first moment here everyone has been great with me. I have settled in to the club.

“The manager helped me settle in quickly, so it has been OK. There is just me and my girlfriend around here. We have no kids - yet! Everything has gone really well. No problems. It’s a little colder ... I used to live in Manchester, so it’s a little bit different, not too much.

“I am just happy to be at this club and I try to enjoy myself every time I play or train. I knew before that this was a big club, being here for five or six months the fans are massive, the support is excellent. It’s a big club to be part of.”

Sunderland’s improvement in form has helped too. After Wigan’s struggles to avoid relegation last season, he opted for the Stadium of Light in the hope of avoiding a repeat this time around.

A failure to defeat West Ham today could leave the Black Cats close to the drop zone once more, but after losing just one of their last six matches there is at least greater hope that Sunderland are on the up.

“We have had a few points recently,” said Gomez. “We have not had an excellent run of results but we are looking solid. It was important to get points against those three difficult teams in the last few games, but we have to keep going and make sure we get the points against West Ham and Newcastle too.

“West Ham are doing well in the table and we know it will be a difficult game. They have a special way of playing and we have to make sure we deal with the long ball duels which they like to play. That will be the best way for us to get a good result.

“The thing with the Premier League is that everyone can beat everyone. West Ham are showing what can happen if you put a few good results together. They are not the biggest of the teams, compared with City, Arsenal, Chelsea, but they are showing that any side can do it.”

West Ham occupy a Champions League spot at the moment and have made other teams take notice of them by adding a different dimension to the way they usually play. As well as using the long ball which had become their trademark, they have also added pace to the way they attack.

Sunderland will focus on keeping Andy Carroll and Co quiet this afternoon, but after three goalless draws from the last four matches there is also a desire to improve the output at the opposite end of the pitch.

Gomez said: “We always want to attack but you are playing like Chelsea, so you have to defend against teams like that. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to attack. We do. We always want to attack.

“If we can turn the draws in to wins then we will be up where we want to be in the table. At the moment I am not thinking where we will finish, but we are focused on West Ham, and go game by game. Finding more goals, being more dangerous will certainly help.”