Pablo Fornals believes West Ham are improving and nearing a return to their best despite only one win in five Premier League matches.
As they did against Leicester the previous weekend, West Ham took the lead in the first-half versus Newcastle only to concede a sloppy goal on the stroke of half-time. At the King Power Stadium, the Hammers went 2-1 down before an injury-time equaliser from Craig Dawson rescued a point.
On Saturday there was little goalmouth action from either side in the second period as the match petered out to a draw but Fornals is confident he saw signs of improvements from his team.
"I think we did a better game than we did against Leicester, we had a few chances and for a lot of the game we proposed a lot of things and create chances but at the end, all that matters is the score," he said.
"It has been tough because in this league it is really tough to get points and even more so if we are the ones making the mistakes. There were many good things from the Leicester game and the Newcastle one to keep improving."
Fornals has scored just once in his last 18 matches in all competitions and the Spanish international does not have an answer for why he is struggling in front of goal. However, he has full faith in his manager to put things right.
"If I knew that [why he is not scoring] obviously I would try to change but the gaffer is totally right," Fornals said. "We have to start scoring more goals or try to defend a bit better when we have a goal at least."
West Ham's fixture list has been a hectic one this season with progress in both domestic cups and the added exertions of Europa League football but Fornals, as with Aaron Cresswell, does not believe fatigue is a factor in their recent form.
"We have an unbelievable squad with many players but it is true that we have a main block [of players] and this main block is playing for many games, but we did the same last season and this season we are fighting," Fornbals said. "We are not winning at the moment but we are not losing, it is just about starting to click those small things, we are going to come back soon."
Fornals expanded on why he thinks West Ham are close to a return to top form: "It is all a process, we didn't play well against Kidderminster or Watford but we won. We played a bit better against Leicester and then again better against Newcastle so I think it is a process and we are in a good way."
