Martinez: Everton can still finish fourth

Posted Thursday, December 25, 2014 by Goal.com

The Toffees languish in 11th place in the English top flight but their manager remains optimistic about their hopes about challenging for a Champions League berth.

Roberto Martinez says Everton can still finish fourth in the Premier League if they rediscover their best form following a disappointing first half of the season.

Martinez's men sit 11th in the Premier League and head into the Boxing Day visit of Stoke City having lost 3-0 at Southampton last weekend.

The Spaniard believes his side's showing was out of character in comparison to their other performances this season but is keen for Everton to hit their stride ahead of a busy period of fixtures.

"We haven't been able to be consistent with our results in the league," Martinez said. "It was the first time in the aspect of our performance at Southampton that we let ourselves down."

"We need to learn from it. We're focused on trying to get a bit of consistency on our results in the league."

"We're all hurt when you get a result like that. You feel that we could have done a lot better. Maybe we could have done a lot better in certain aspects of our performance."

"We never shy away from the responsibility. We want to get results on a consistent basis."

Everton finished a lofty fifth in the Premier League in 2013-14 but are 13 points adrift of their tally at the same stage last season.

Martinez is not worried, though, and is confident Everton have plenty of time to recover and even make a push for the top four.

"I'm not concerned in terms of the the performance. We are better this season in many aspects," he added. "It is a really exciting season because playing in Europe and other competitions gives you an extra dimension."

"We can look to the second half of the season and see how we can bridge that gap."

"I don't think the fourth place is gone. The teams that you've got fighting for the title are only taking two of the four spots."

"Everything else is wide open. There are no easy games any more, that makes it a tight league."