Sean Dyche admits Everton need more wins if he is to keep his job under the club's new owners, The Friedkin Group, after a 0-0 draw at home to a dominant Chelsea team.
Despite a respectable defensive display against the Blues, which saw representatives of the new owners watching from the stands including newly-appointed executive chairman Marc Watts,Dyche acknowledges that his team needs to start turning draws into wins to improve theirposition in the table.
Not just that, but to secure his future with the club as his contract is up for renewal come the summer.
"It wasn’t my only goal (to send TFG home with a point) to do that but it is a nice add-on," Dyche 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."
After a daunting run of fixtures that included Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester City, Dyche feels pride in his team's performances and remains focused on the challenges ahead.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca praised his team's resolve, despite the match bringing to an end their winning streak, and valued their approach against tough opposition.
"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," Maresca remarked.
"A group of players who have given everything again today, tactically, and I’m pleased with that."
Despite Chelsea controlling the game with 75 per cent possession and ending an eight-match winning run without scoring since October, Maresca remained content with Chelsea's performance.
He said: "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).
"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."