The busy festive fixture schedule is upon us, starting with a home match against Tottenham Hotspur this Sunday.
While it’s a manic period for everyone involved in the game, I think all football fans particularly enjoy watching their team play at this time of the year.
At this point in the season it’s all about digging in, using the Everton squad to the best of its ability and picking up as many positive results – and points – as possible. It’s a quick turnaround between matches because after Tottenham, we then have away games against Burnley and Brighton & Hove Albion before we face Leicester City at Goodison on New Year’s Day.
It’s a demanding schedule, with four games in nine days, but we are ready for the challenges ahead, knowing a good run of form over Christmas can give us serious momentum going into the second half of the season.
Earlier this week we made our annual festive visit to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. It’s terrific to get to see the kids.
Some of them are not very well at all and it’s always a humbling experience, helping you to appreciate just how lucky we are. We visited a number of wards and got to meet kids of all ages, including some new-born babies.
It’s difficult to see poorly kids but it’s about putting smiles on their faces and hopefully our visit did that.
Looking ahead to our game with Spurs at Goodison, it’s important we get back to winning ways after a couple of disappointing draws at home to Newcastle and Watford. Our form at Goodison has been strong this season – we are unbeaten in six Premier League games on home soil – and we must maintain that if we want to kick on.
Our manager, Marco Silva, is building a young, dynamic team that looks to play on the front foot. That was evident last weekend at Manchester City.
I felt we did well against Pep Guardiola’s team and probably created more chances against them than most other teams will this season. We must therefore take the positives from that performance, keep plugging away as a group and see where it takes us.
A top-six finish at the end of the season would be ideal but there’s lots of hard work ahead.
On a personal note, 2018 was a good year for me, especially reflecting back on what England achieved in the World Cup.
There is the Nations League finals to look forward to next summer but, for now, it’s about kicking on with Everton, building on the last six months under Marco and getting better.
