Valon Behrami has summed up the mood in the West Ham United camp as the team look to regain the winning habit in the Barclays Premier League with Sunday's visit of Manchester City.
The 23-year-old midfielder has been a revelation in his first season in England, playing a major role in Gianfranco Zola's exciting first six months in charge. Having helped get the club to mid-table, Behrami sees no reason why West Ham cannot put recent disappointments - including the FA Cup exit - behind them and push on up.
"We are concentrating on the league and on Sunday there will be a game against a team [Manchester City] who have the same targets as us, so it is a very important game for us to get a result. We are at home, we want to win. It won't be easy and we will be looking to raise the confidence again after losing.
"First thing for us to focus on is to be strong really early on and play our game. This last week has seen us lose two games in pretty much the same way in both of them, so we were very disappointed. We went behind at Bolton and the reaction was good as we got back into the game and played well despite losing.
"The performance at Middlesbrough certainly did not reflect our team and the way we have been playing over the last three or four months. We are better than that. The manager is very positive with us and wants us to keep positive, we will do this because he helps us to do this. Although we lost, we are not in a bad way.
"We have to show our personalities, the work and training is there. The atmosphere in the dressing room is good and so we have to show that again in our game on the pitch." Behrami will particularly be giving his all, as he is suspended for the midweek trip to Wigan Athletic and wants to sign off in style before his watching brief.
He is also not concerned by the return of Craig Bellamy in the City strikeforce, stressing that all that will trouble him and his team-mates is their own performance. "He has moved on and so have we. We respect him, we have to be aware of him, but we want to win the game and that is what we are focusing on.
"We are at home, so it's important for the younger players and everybody to know everyone is behind them. We had very good support from our fans at Middlesbrough but we didn't show what we can really do so we look to do that. We have to search for everything we can in the first few minutes, keep going and just give everything."