Everton manager Sean Dyche was pleased to send representatives of new owners The Friedkin Group home with a point after a goalless draw against high-flying Chelsea but admits that will not be enough to keep him in the job.
Having drawn 0-0 at Arsenal last weekend, the point at home against the second-placed Londoners was watched by representatives of TFG – including new executive chairman Marc Watts – after the takeover was completed on Thursday.
However, although they have lost only two of the last 12 there have been only three Premier League victories all season and Dyche, who is out of contract in the summer, knows that is a statistic which has to change.
“It wasn’t my only goal (to send TFG home with a point) to do that but it is a nice add-on,” he said.
”We’ve had a good meeting with them, they seem really good, really serious people.
“People talk about my own position – win games, they have made it clear. They are supportive of my role, what I’ve done here and what I hope we do. We have got to win games, though. I’m not naive.”
The fixture list handed Everton a nightmare December with matches against Liverpool (postponed because of bad weather), Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Defeat at United was followed by back-to-back goalless draws against the teams second and third in the table and Dyche is satisfied with how things are going.
“I never lack pride in what we do, that’s for sure,” he added.
“I’m pleased with the mentality. There is a lot of noise with what they do. It can affect people, I don’t think it has this time, they have stayed resolute to the cause.
“A group of players who have given everything again today, tactically, and I’m pleased with that.”
Despite seeing an eight-match winning run ended, failing to score for the first time since October and missing the chance to put real pressure on Premier League leaders Liverpool, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was satisfied with his side’s performance despite generating only five shots on target from 75 percent possession.
“I am absolutely happy. I just said to the players I am more happy today than I was after the Brentford game (which they won 2-1 last weekend),” he said.
“The reason why was I was quite worried about this game: tricky game, tricky stadium, tricky team.
“Defensively they are top, they are one of the five best teams in Europe in terms of clean sheets so you struggle to create chances against them.
“It was not an easy game and you have to learn how to play different games. Football is not only just how good you play on the ball, it is how you defend and how you deal with that.
“We knew already it was a tough game in terms of clear chances if you saw their last game against Arsenal but in general you always struggle to create chances against them.
“In these kind of games, knowing you are not going to create many chances, you have to be clinical and in the first half we had the Nico (Nicolas Jackson) one with the keeper and the post from Nico and one or two chances inside the box.
“If you are able to be clinical then and score the game can be completely different but until that moment you will struggle.”
