Naismith: We are right in the mix for Europe
Steven Naismith believes that Everton are right back in the mix for European competition following the weekends victory over Aston Villa following the derby nightmare.
Results have gone for Everton this weekend, which has seen Manchester United lose and Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur draw.
The Scotland international came off the bench to start the Everton scoring and Naismith confirmed that Everton boss Roberto Martinez told him to get about them and make a nuisance.
Naismith said: “We’re still right in the mix. Losing heavily in a derby is never nice and we wanted to come back from that. But with where we are in the league, you want to keep up with the teams at the top too.
“We’ve got to believe we can do it and take that into every game.
“This week just goes to show that each game you go into, there can be so much change at the top – and at the bottom – so you’ve got to believe that every game you go into, even if you only get a point, it’s going to make a difference for you.”
He added: “I think he wanted me to get a goal as quickly as possible but it was more about just being a presence. We knew they had a pretty high line, so it was about timing our runs properly to get in the box.
“I didn’t expected to get a chance that quickly in the game but I was glad that it came through to me.
“It’s always a hard thing, coming on as a sub, to get used to the speed of the game. Fortunately, I managed to get the early chance and put it away, and from then on I thought we dominated, played some good stuff and won it with a world-class free-kick.”
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I’m pretty undecided about where we’ll finish.Ask again at Easter. All the teams ahead of us have a tight schedule,playing each other or against the best of Europe.There could be dropped points galore. The team with the best run for the next couple of months are just across the park from us,I reckon at Easter we will be able to say where we might end up, just hope it’s CL not EL,as the squad might struggle with that burden.