Mata relishing hectic schedule

Juan Mata admits Manchester United are lacking consistency in the Premier League but he believes the congested fixture list over the coming weeks will work to their advantage.

While they defeated Feyenoord 4-0 in the Europa League last week, United are without a win in the Premier League since the 4-1 defeat of Leicester on September 24 with Sunday's 1-1 draw with West Ham their fourth successive draw.

They have eight games before the end of the year, starting with Wednesday's EFL Cup quarter-final against West Ham and Mata admits they cannot keep blaming bad luck for their lack of wins and is targeting a successful end to 2016 to get their season back on track.

"This 1-1 would be easier to take if it came after a winning streak, but this is not the case," Mata wrote in his weekly blog.

"A few days ago we beat Feyenoord in a good game. We were playing to stay in the Europa League and the team delivered; we enjoyed ourselves on the pitch and scored several goals. So far in the Premiership, though, we haven’t found that consistency, that winning streak that is so much needed and that we’re working so much to achieve. When we seem to be close to a victory, it just slips away…

"I’m talking mainly about the Premier League games at Old Trafford, which is even more upsetting because playing in front of our fans is an extra, and that’s how we feel. But we must convert that desire to win and that frustration into more victories, more points.

"That will give us more confidence and will eventually lead to a good run of results. You feel helpless after these games when you think that you’ve played better than the opponent, that you’ve had chances to score and the goalkeeper has had a fantastic performance. But we can’t complain, we can’t just blame the bad luck. We know we must find the target more often to score more goals. We are doing what is more difficult: being able to create those chances, and now we have to take them. Otherwise, at this level you get penalised as we have seen lately.

"I’m having a look at the calendar and I see that we have eight games to play before the end of the year. In my opinion, having so many games in such a short period is something positive because we are eager to play again.

"Starting with the EFL Cup, again with West Ham, and then visiting Everton the next weekend. Two good games would help us to approach the Christmas season with more optimism. That would be very important because these few weeks are going to be very demanding, and every single team in the competition will struggle to get good results."