Ronald Koeman is hoping his Everton side can carry the momentum from their last two performances forward to secure victory against Southampton.
The Toffees drew 2-2 with Hull City at the KCOM Stadium last time out, courtesy of Ross Barkley’s header.
That followed up a 2-0 success over reigning champions Leicester City on the road, but Koeman is wary of the threat posed by Saints after their recent meeting at St Mary’s.
“We know it’s a good team but away against Southampton was one of the worst performances of the team of this season but the team is different now,” said Koeman.
“I think we showed, after a real disappointment against Watford, in how we played against Arsenal, how we played against Liverpool and in two away games since, that we can take a lot of positives from recent performances.”
“We know it’s a tough game, a special one and let’s hope we see a good performance and three points.”
The festive period sees little turnaround between fixtures, and like his managerial counterpart Claude Puel, Koeman has hinted at freshening things up for the first game of the calendar year.
He added: “It’s a really tough period of games for everybody but we know you can’t play three games in seven or eight days with 11 players - you need to do some changes in the team.
“It’s all about the freshness of the players. The boys showed really good spirit against Hull and we will see now what is the best team to start against Southampton.”
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