Carl Jenkinson is expecting an upturn in fortunes when West Ham United return to Barclays Premier League action.
The 23-year-old could scarcely believe that the Hammers departed the Boleyn Ground empty handed on Wednesday evening and hopes that Lady Luck will soon be smiling on West Ham again.
Though the Hammers’ European bid may have stalled of late, Jenkinson is hardly about to give up on it altogether and foresees a strong end to the campaign.
“It's unbelievable that we've not come away with anything,” he admitted. “What can I say, it's the way football goes sometimes and it's very frustrating.
“It’s time to regroup and we've still got a very important run-in until the end of the season. We want to be as high up that table as we possibly can.
“A European place is what we’ve targeted up all season and that’s still the case. I think that’s realistic.
“We started the season fantastically well, we’ve had a little dip, but performance wise, I think anyone who has watched our games, Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea, will know these are all games we should have got more points out of.
“That happens in football sometimes, but our luck will change and things will start going for us, hopefully. And when they do, we’ll get some points on the board.”
While Jenkinson and co had nothing to show for their efforts on Wednesday evening, the England U21 international was rightly buoyed by an excellent display against Jose Mourinho’s title favourites.
All that was missing, of course, was that all-important equaliser, but with Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia in tow, Jenkinson reckons the goals will be back in abundance before long.
He continued: “I think our performance speaks for itself. As a team we put in a fantastic performance. It's just the way things are going for us at the moment, we're just not getting the rub of the green to be honest.
“We had a few chances on Wednesday, it just didn't want to go in the back of the net and that's been the story of the last few games for us. But things will change soon. We were incredibly unlucky with the result on Wednesday but the performance was really encouraging and I think the manager was pleased with us.”