Everton defender Leighton Baines is confident that the Toffees can overturn their poor run of form in the upcoming set of fixtures. The Merseyside outfit are currently placed just above the drop in 16th spot, but Baines believes his side have the experience to recover from their early stumble.

Speaking on the club’s official website, the England international insisted that his side could still have a good season as they have the right players and manager to turn things around, he said: “There are always times in a season when you have a sticky patch. We had one last year – we started well but then we could not win for a while. I think the season overall was still viewed as a good season. And there is still so much football to play, there is no reason why this cannot be a good season. We are a good side, we have a good manager. All of the players will have been through this type of thing many times before in different periods of their careers and under different managers.”

Everton appeared to have turned the tide last month with back to back victories over Sunderland and Bournemouth respectively. However, things went pear-shaped once more as a 2-2 Europa League draw against Apollon Limassol, was followed by a 1-0 loss to Burnley in the top-flight.

The Toffees were introduced to a tough fixture list which involved Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – all in the space of just a month, but Ronald Koeman would nevertheless have preferred his side to perform better having brought in quality players from the Premier League as well as Europe.

Everton visit Brighton & Hove Albion in their next league outing following the international break, and they are unlikely to receive any favours from Chris Hughton’s men, who managed to put in a decent display in the 2-0 defeat at Arsenal earlier this month.