The view from Everton: Martinez has us dreaming of the top four

I hope this isn’t the beginning of a dumbing down of TW as we know that the site has far higher standards than the national newspapers...

Seriously, it is nice to see TW being recognised and the Daily Mail even provides a link back to the TW site. Well done, Lyndon.

Let’s look at last season: we had a reasonable pre-season, our striker Kone, gets an injury (which ultimately eliminated him for the season) also we lose Darron Gibson; we were adapting a different style of play, under a new manager.

While we adapted very quickly and played well, we did not have that cutting edge. On paper, we had three opening games, which should have claimed three points per game. As we all know, these were all draws, so six points gone!

We then get our loan players plus James McCarthy with minutes to spare of the transfer window!

Barry proves to be a masterstroke, but can’t play against Man City! Rom a sensation, but again can’t play against Chelsea, and also gets an injury which means he misses a few games.

With all these setbacks, we still, set the highest points total for our season, so this season we will be more accomplished, have players on board permanently, and gained the respect of other Prem sides ( except the Dark Side )

In the words of a Caesar, " So sit back and let the games begin " !

This week was the perfect example. Roberto said we needed a striker. Many were suggested but none of them were good enough. Roberto looks for skill, team spirit and character.

We tried Rom last season and we know how well he plays, we know he loves the club and his teammates and that he wants to play for us. He is the best striker we could have acquired by quite some distance — and only the best is good enough.

Then in the last 2 months the shackles seem to come off a bit and we created and scored more. With the system we play Barkley and Mirallas have got to be scoring 10 plus premier league goals this season. This also could be the reason for Pienaar to get phased out as much as I like him as my mate says he can’t finish his dinner.

The difference between us and teams above us is the goals they score more goals and a killer instinct they have which we never showed until near the end of the season. I for one am hoping for less draws this season as we go all out for 3 points when the game is tight and will settle for a couple of extra defeats for the extra wins this attitude brings.

All-in-all, this squad is looking our most exciting for many a year with hopefully another couple of additions and hopefully lots of goals. COYB