Carl Jenkinson feels West Ham are ‘capable’ of a top-four finish in the Premier League.

The Hammers defender, who is on a season-long loan from Arsenal for the second year in a row, scored in their win at Crystal Palace last week to put Slaven Bilic’s side up to fourth place.

They have shown excellent away form to win at Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City so far this season.

The 23-year-old was keen not to get carried away, but he refused to rule out a finish in the Champions League places.

“We’ve beaten the clubs that you would expect to be in the top four , it’s a thing we are capable of but it is a very tough ask,” Jenkinson told Drivetime.

“Finishing in the top four is almost a trophy in itself at times, it’s very difficult to get into and it’s such an achievement if we do.

“In terms of the players we have, I think we are capable of doing it, it’s not something the club’s done before in recent years. So it’s a very tough ask and I wouldn’t want to put pressure on ourselves by saying we definitely can, but it would be a good achievement if we could.

“We just have to continue doing what we are doing and playing with the confidence and freedom that we have been playing with. If we do that, we’ll get a lot of wins and a lot of points.

“It’s a bit too early to start talking about the Champions League, it’s a very tough ask but never say never.”

Boyhood Arsenal fan Jenkinson has featured nine times for West Ham this season, while making 36 appearances in a claret and blue shirt in 2014/15, and he feels there are exciting times ahead on the field, in addition to the new stadium off it.

Jenkinson added: “With the new manager everything’s changed in quite a few different ways, with no disrespect to Sam [Allardyce] – he did fantastic for the club.

“Slaven [Bilic] has come in, the training’s very intense and quite a few things have changed. Obviously with the players he’s brought in and I think there’s an awful lot of quality in the squad.

“Obviously there’s been a few changes with personnel but they’ve been positive ones.

“We’ve got some great results against the big clubs away from home this year. At those sort of grounds you’ve got to sit in and defend well.

“We’ve got such pace on the break where I think it’s suited us to be honest. In those games we’ve defended really well. [Victor] Moses, [Diafra] Sakho, [Dimitri] Payet, [Manuel] Lanzini – they are very good players on the break and that has suited us down to the ground.”

Jenkinson also told Drivetime that Arsenal team-mate Alexis Sanchez is in the same league as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, read more here.