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The start of 2016 has not been a good one for Everton as they have consistently been dropping points in the Premier League.

In all fairness, they have faced a string of difficult opponents in January as they have locked horns with: Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and a Chelsea squad that is slowly reviving, Roberto Martinez and his players had to play these teams all in the opening month of this new year.

Roberto Martinez has in his squad some of the most promising young players in the entire Premier League with the likes of: John Stones, Ross Barkley and Brendan Galloway.

Losing against the relegation threatened club Swansea City was not an easy result to take in but that’s what Roberto Martinez experienced as he witnessed his team losing 1-2 against Swansea City on January 24 of 2016 in their own home ground in Goodison Park.

Even prior to this underwhelming defeat against Swansea City, Everton has been showing struggles with surprising results. Not so long ago, Everton has sustained draws against: Crystal Palace, AFC Bournemouth and Norwich City.
When you consider all the talent and quality that Roberto Martinez has at his disposal, these kinds of results aren’t the ones that the fans of the club were expecting to see.
These are a few of the main reasons of why Martinez has been pressured recently. The Spanish manager is even being rumored of getting axed unless positive results start emerging within the upcoming few weeks.

Tim Howard has not been performing at his best in recent times but the American goal-keeper somehow has still managed to secure a spot in the starting lineup of Roberto Martinez and this is another of the big reasons on why the Spanish coach is being critiqued as he should allow other players to prove their worth and it might be time to cut ties with Tim Howard who is reaching the 37 year old mark.
Some changes need to happen and they need to be fast or else it might just be the last season of Roberto Martinez as the head coach of Everton.

Everton’s winless run of matches continued but this time with a defeat against table leaders Leicester City.

Despite playing at home, the club suffered a 3-2 defeat to one of the most surprising teams in the league so far. Leicester were expected to be in a relegation battle at this stage, but they are crowned as the winter champions.

Manager Claudio Ranieri has done quite an amazing job to transform this team on a shoestring budget in the space of a few weeks. Everton, on the other hand, are struggling to impose themselves in matches and their poor defensive record has once again come to the fore.

Manager Roberto Martinez’ hopes of qualifying for the top four or even the Europa league is under major threat if this poor form continues. Martinez admitted that Everton have nobody other than themselves to blame for this poor run. Amazingly, the club’s last victory in the league was back towards the end of November when a 4-0 thrashing of Aston Villa looks to have happened a long time back. They have slipped into the top 10 as a result of this winless run. More downturn may await the club if they fail to recover before facing a trip to face Newcastle United on Boxing Day.

“I think we weren’t at our best. I think the previous two games I thought we were fantastic for periods and the previous three draws were very unfortunate and on Saturday, up to a point it’s a very different type of game.We’re playing against a top of the league team, full of confidence and full of belief and you saw that. I just thought that scoring two goals against a well organised side should be enough to win a football game,” said the Everton manager after the latest loss.

Southampton manager Ronald Koeman watched his team salvaged a point at Anfield in the latest league outing.

The 1-1 draw was a deserved result for the team, as they worked extremely hard throughout the 90 minutes to contain the Liverpool team that was trying to get in the first win under manager Jurgen Klopp. The German replaced Brendan Rodgers a fortnight ago, but he is yet to taste his first victory despite having played three matches in all competitions. All three games have finished as a draw and it was the case at Anfield.

For long periods of the game, Liverpool dominated possession but they were unable to find the decisive breakthrough. They had to wait until the 77th minute when summer signing Christian Benteke scored what looked to be the winner for much of the game.Mané had other ideas after a cropper with the equaliser with four minutes of normal time remaining. However, there were some nervous moments for Southampton afterMané became the villain with a second yellow card in injury time. Southampton, though, held on for a point that sees them keep their place above Liverpool in the table.

Southampton are ahead of Liverpool in the league table on goal difference. The team remains in with a shout to qualify for the Europa league.”Of course I’m happy about the final 1-1. We knew it would be a difficult game. There were not a lot of chances for Liverpool or for us. It was a hard game and maybe one goal would have decided the victory for one of the two teams. But we showed great character after going 1-0 down. It was a good reaction from the team and we scored to make it 1-1. That was a great moment,” said the Dutchman after the game.

Everton recently received an offer from Chelsea for defender John Stones, but they were also surprised to see that the offer had been made public partly due to the opposition manager Jose Mourinho.

It is understood that the bid is valued at around £ 20 million, which has been turned down immediately by Everton. Manager Roberto Martinez has criticised the way the Premier League champions have gone about their business. However, this appears to have been a calculated move from Mourinho and Chelsea, as Stones is keen on talking with Chelsea to learn about their offer.

The 21-year-old is enough of the bright young English prospects. After impressing sufficiently with Everton over the last 12 months, he has earned a call up to the national team. It is thought that Chelsea see him as the ideal replacement for John Terry at the back. The Chelsea captain is soon to be 35 and coming to the end of his career. This coupled with the lack of sufficient number of homegrown players is threatening to deplete the squad. Chelsea are understood to value Stones at around £ 30 million and will not think twice about paying this figure for the youngster.

Martinez was speaking on the occasion of the club’s pre-season tour in Asia.”There is the disappointment of a club making a statement to the press and making it openly.I don’t think we’d do it and speak about a player. John Stones is an Everton player, full stop.We are not a selling club. We are not a club that needs to be worried about what other clubs put through the press,” said Martinez.”When the transfer window is open, every club and player is open to bids.Bids come for our players and we make bids for other players,” responded Mourinho.

Roberto Martinez has accepted for the first time that his players may have failed to cope with the immense pressure created after a fantastic first season at the club.

After taking over from David Moyes, Martinez was a breath of fresh at Goodison Park. Not only did he bring in beautiful and flowing football, but it also brought in excellent results that almost gave them Champions League football after more than a decade. It was not to be, but there was optimism ahead of last season due to signings like Romelu Lukaku for club record fees.

Yet, it was largely a disappointing season for the club as they finished outside the Europa League qualification spots. The club placed a lot of hope on winning the Europa League, which would have given them direct access to the group stages of the Champions League. It was not to be as well after a shock defeat at the hands of Dynamo Kyiv away from home. Even though Everton looked home and dry after a 2-1 home victory, a 5-2 thrashing in the second leg knocked them out of the competition. Even recovery towards the end of the campaign was not enough to prevent Everton from finishing only in the 11th spot.

“We finished the previous season really strong and created huge expectations and that is something different, mentally, that you have to cope with. Especially with the way we want to play, we have to open teams up and individually you go through a learning curve but we have all become stronger, especially the younger players who have never had that important role in the side, and the first six months of this season will prove one of the most influential in their careers. In that respect, you can see the change in the players now,” said Martinez.

Everton enjoyed a much better season in the previous campaign as they finished at the 5th spot and managed to clinch a spot in the Europa League but things have dramatically changed in the current season as the side of Roberto Martinez have experienced a very inconsistent season but Martinez is certain that this underwhelming season will help his squad in becoming a better team for the years to come.

The Spanish manager of Everton, Martinez said: “It has been a very strong learning curve. Obviously, we have enjoyed our European experience and we are a completely different team than we were at the beginning of the season. We don’t shy away from the expectations, and it is something that we are going to use in a good way, to become a winning team. I think this season we showed that we are ready to face challenges head-on and we are really excited about the future.”

Martinez only wants to focus in ending the season strong and try to forget about some of the more disappointing results that his team has sustained in this campaign including the 6-3 defeat that they suffered when playing against Chelsea at the beginning of the season in August of 2014
Everton will be concluding the season by facing off with Sunderland, West Ham United and lastly Tottenham Hotspurs.

From there on out Roberto Martinez can begin focusing on different ways to reinforce his squad and avoid going through any further underwhelming seasons and hope to get back into the Europa League in the near future.

Chelsea, Ipswich Town, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool are the only English clubs that have been able to win the Europa League but Roberto Martinez is hoping that he can mark his name in the history-books by taking Everton to the finals of this European competition and winning it.

RomeluLukaku is only 21 years old but he has already performed in clubs such as: Chelsea, West Bromwich Albion and Everton which is where the Belgian attacker is currently performing in.

A few weeks ago Lukaku stated that he would like to join a big club in the future and these comments have led to rumors involving Lukaku wanting to move out from Everton and join a club that has better chances on lifting major trophies but according to Roberto Martinez, everything that his player said was taken out of context as Lukaku does not want to leave Everton anytime soon.

The main reason on why Lukaku decided to leave Chelsea was due to his lack of playing time as he was mostly just sitting on the sidelines of Stamford Bridge with Jose Mourinho preferring to use other players and Lukaku had to settle being used as a substitute player.

The Belgian player seems to be much happier now playing for Everton as he is a consistent starter of Roberto Martinez and Lukaku has managed to score 7 goals for his team which makes him the highest goal-scorer of Everton at this point in time.

Everton has not only set their sights on finishing in the top 10 spots of the Premier League but they are also competing in the Europa League and in their clash against Young Boys, Lukaku managed to seal a hat-trick which according to Roberto Martinez is how the Belgian expresses the affection and appreciation that he has towards Everton and his fans.

“Rom was delighted to commit himself to Everton. He loves playing for Everton, he showed that today.A footballer needs to be measured by the way he talks on the pitch. Sometimes a microphone can be put in front of you and people dissect what you say and then highlight a word or line.He’s a special footballer who we love seeing developing, and he’s just enjoying being an important player for Everton.” Everton’s Roberto Martinez said after his team defeated Young Boys with a scoreboard of 4-1 on February 19.

It is true that Lukaku wants to join a bigger club but this will only happen if Everton receives a high enough offer for the Belgian forward and for the time being, Lukaku is satisfied being a regular player in the team of Roberto Martinez which is good news for Everton as the English club needs to have a player like him in the squad.

Everton had missed the Champions League qualification just by a whisker last season.

This season when they started, their main agenda was to make sure that this time they make their way to Europe, but, the spirit of the last season has seemed to be absent so far in their performances.

Not from any angle are they looking the team which had given the likes of Chelsea and Tottenham a good run for their money just months ago.

As far as Everton’s current position in the league table is concerned, it’s in the lower half and there’s a real possibility that they might have to stay in that half of the table only if they don’t get their game raised somehow in the New Year.

If Everton finishes outside top 10, that would be an absolute shame for them especially when one considers what they had done in 2013-14.

The time has not run out for the Toffees. They have half the season in front of them, but, at the moment, what would be worrying their fans is that they just don’t seem to have the sting in them. They don’t look threatening even when they face a team that, on paper, doesn’t look as strong as them.

In the last three games, the way the holes have been found by the opposition teams in the midfield and defence of Everton; it’s not a good sign at all.

The team that is just above Everton in the league table i.e. at the 11th position is Stoke City and the points’ difference between the two sides is 4 which is a big difference.

So, it’s not that one or two wins would help Everton jump in the table. If they have to go up, they need quite a few wins in a row.

Everton was one of the standout clubs of the Premier League in the previous season as the team of Roberto Martinez secured the 5th spot of the top tier English League, finishing with more points than top squads such as: Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester United.

It was a remarkable season for Roberto Martinez and his squad of players. The previous season also witnessed Martinez making a record breaking run when Everton was able to win 7 consecutive league matches; it was a feat that the English club had not been able to accomplish since 1987.

Roberto Martinez is hoping that in this new season, his team can continue breaking club records and maintain their charge for the top spots of the Premier League but in their current campaign, it has not been going on as splendid as the previous season.

Everton has been dropping a large amount of valuable points after drawing against: Sunderland, Swansea City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Leicester City. All of these results have seen Everton having to settle with a place on the 10th spot of the Premier League after 11 league matches.

According to the Spanish coach of Everton, Martinez stated that the Premier League is getting much more competitive than it was before and it will be very difficult to replicate performances and record breaking achievements of previous seasons.

“The league is so competitive now that it is rare that you are not going to get into a difficult game, from game to game. Teams are brave, they want to hurt you and they want to make very difficult games. Maybe you could get a couple of fixtures where everything goes your way, maybe when you are at home, but I cannot see a run of seven games now’’ Everton’s Roberto Martinez said.

Everton secured three points for only the second consecutive time this season after a 3-1 win over Burnley on Saturday. The win was hugely helped by the two goals from Samuel Eto’o, who also came extremely close to getting hat-trick after hitting the post. The former Chelsea man has not been a regular goalscorer, but his contribution has been immense according to Roberto Martinez. The

Everton manager claims that the 33-year-old is a gift from God because he has not only been able to contribute on the pitch, but also off it as well.

Eto’o has been an inspiration to the younger kids at Everton. The club has one of the best youth academies in England and it is thought that the presence of this former Champions League winner will help the club move forward in this area even more. Eto’o is one a few players in the world to have won the competition with three different clubs. He spent only one season at Chelsea before being released from his contract. He joined Everton on a free transfer and his contributions so far suggest that Martinez is likely to offer him another year. Everton moved into the top half of the table after the win over Burnley.

“To have Samuel Eto’o at our club is like a gift from the footballing gods. His finishing is of the highest calibre but it’s important that we give him the right amount of playing time. I’m really excited to see how he’ll adapt in the 2nd half of the season. His experience and know-how have been important. I hope Samuel can enjoy his football. He’s excited and stimulated to show the fans what he can do. When I look at Samuel every day he comes in with standards wanting more work and is a great example to us all,” said Martinez.