Jekyll and Hyde is how I would describe our home and away form and results, which has been the way for some time for Everton.
Our home form would have us in a Champions league position over the past eight matches. Our away form would not leave us nowhere near qualifying for Europe. Put simply, we have to lift ourselves against Stoke tomorrow to the level of performance we have shown at home for a sustained period now.
The level of performance at home has not been emulated away and, looking into it and trying to analyse why this may be the case, it’s very revealing that in the whole of 2017 we’ve managed to win only two games away from home. In the whole of 2016 it was only five, so for too long and under three managers who’ve drawn on different players the net result away from home is just not good enough.
It bears no comparison to how we’ve performed at home, with seven wins, two draws and only a single defeat against Manchester United in our past 10 Premier League games at Goodison. The level of performance at home has not been emulated away and I have to be the one who turns that around.
We put ourselves in a position in our past two away games at Watford and Burnley to achieve positive results. Ultimately, these are the small margins and dividing lines. When chances such as these come your way and you don’t take them, you come under increased pressure the next time to put yourself in a position to win the game. If you are in a position to win but allow the opposition to score from your mistakes, then you get punished and that is one of the key elements we have to cut out.
Achieving that same level of performance home and away, we have to be 100 per cent on our game. Anything less than that it is difficult to get the job done, no matter who you play.
Overall, I suppose the Premier League is throwing up more bizarre results than ever before. There have always been shock results in the Premier League, of course, but when you see Bournemouth win at Chelsea then lose at Huddersfield it is more bizarre than it has ever been. What we have to do is cultivate and maintain a more consistent level of performance away from home, there is no doubt about that.
Being able to play Seamus Coleman, Phil Jagielka and Leighton Baines together in the back four for the first time in more than a year was a big plus last weekend against Brighton and, hopefully, those guys will stay fit until the end of the season.
Seamus and Leighton provide us with better balance in the side and give more service to the midfield players as well as the front lads. With all due respect to Cuco Martina and Jonjoe Kenny, who have both done a fantastic job in difficult times, Seamus and Leighton are massively experienced Everton players and top internationals in their own right and we haven’t had their services for the vast majority of the season. They have had 10 years at the club and have a lot of passion and desire for Everton to do well, which rubs off on the other players, too.
Gylfi Sigurdsson’s knee injury was the biggest blow of last week’s victory over Brighton and it is one we don’t know how long it will be. Thankfully, Theo Walcott only suffered cramp. He has had a big impact for us since arriving in January from Arsenal, as has Cenk Tosun who has scored two goals in our last two games. If we can increase our final-third quality even more, they will provide and score even more goals and help to put right our away results.
