Koeman happy with the Toffees’ festive haul

Ronald Koeman’s Everton wrapped up a second win from three festive clashes against Southampton yesterday and the Dutchman believes they are now primed to attack the Premier League in January.

Enner Valencia, Leighton Baines and Romelu Lukaku all scored as the Toffees put three past Southampton at Goodison Park and with a win away to Leicester and a draw with Hull, they sealed seven points from a potential nine to leave them seventh in the English top flight.

With Manchester United and Tottenham both on winning runs, Everton have seen a nine-point gap open up to fifth and sixth place, but Koeman is nevertheless confident his side can push on in January.

“It is always nice to have a strong result at home and a clean sheet. It boosts confidence. It was a tough period over Christmas but seven points from nine is really good,” he explained.

(Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

“I mentioned to the players at half time to play at a higher tempo and we did that much better in the second half.

“It is always difficult to create big chances, Southampton are a strong team, but we made the difference in the final part of the game.

“The result is very good and we got a clean sheet. We had good organisation about our defending and were defensively strong, and we know we can score goals. The final 30 minutes was very good.”