'Maybe an ugly win is the best'

Ronald Koeman is aware of his own shaky position as Everton head into the fixture sitting 16th in the table and having collected a meager eight points in as many top-flight fixtures so far this season.

"It's crucial. I made good contact with the board of the club but everybody knows I'm not stupid," said the Everton manager, who is under increasing pressure due to their worst-ever start to a Premier League campaign.

"Finally you need wins and you need points. Maybe an ugly win is the best for this Sunday," he added. "I have really good contact with the board but if there is unhappiness around the club, and if the team is not winning, finally the manager will always pay the bill and that's football and I accept that."

"I think it's a difficult situation because we did not have a usual pre-season because we had to play the last two rounds of qualification for the Europa League," said Koeman.

"Normally you have two weeks more to prepare the team for the start of the Premier League. With a lot of new players it was tricky with their confidence because if you have one or two new players, I think it's less difficult to get that formation from the beginning."

"And we had eight or nine new players and that makes it even more difficult. Everybody knows that new players need time to adapt to the Premier League, to the competitions."