The Italian takes charge of the team for the first time on Saturday when managerless Newcastle are the visitors to Upton Park.

The former Chelsea favourite watched his new side from the stands at West Brom last week before officially taking over as Alan Curbishley's successor on Monday.

Albion won that one 3-2 with a late goal and Zola, who has appointed countryman Antonio Pintus as his fitness coach, was keen to put that right.

He said: "I was surprised how the players tired towards the end of that game. Probably if they had not we wouldn't have lost.

"But I told the players not to be too hard on themselves. Up to 70 minutes they were very good and looked the better team on the pitch.

"The last 20 minutes they went down physically and when you go down physically you also lose attention and that's why we conceded a third goal.

"We have already started working on that."

Zola, who has been able to persuade Steve Clarke to leave Chelsea to become his assistant, declared he was delighted with the players' response to his methods.

He said: "The training sessions have been spot on and all the players have been very committed.

"Today, for example, it should have been an easy session but they wanted to push it all the time. I am very pleased. It is the kind of attitude every manager hopes to get.

"I like to train a lot with the ball with a lot of intensity in the sessions. I know my training sessions are very demanding but they are always with the ball and always with a lot of enjoyment.

"The players have already said to me they like it very much. The sessions are not longer than an hour and a half but they are very sharp. Maybe this week has been a little longer because I had to explain certain things but they were not too long."

Striker Dean Ashton is out injured yet again but Zola revealed his latest setback, an ankle problem, was not likely to keep him out for long.

He said: "Deano unfortunately won't be available this week. He will have to rest but he will be ready to start again next week. We will monitor his condition but at the moment he needs one week to recover.

"He already had a problem and the ankle got sore when we were training so we had to stop him.

"Craig Bellamy also has a problem, it's his old one. We don't know yet whether he is going to be available for Saturday."

Wales international Bellamy was only able to take a place on the bench at The Hawthorns because of a hamstring problem.