Jordan Pickford does not believe Everton will battle Premier League relegation.
Pickford’s opening months at Goodison Park have been overshadowed by a poor start to the season which has left the club in the bottom three after 10 games.
The Blues also parted company with Ronald Koeman last month in the wake of that abject form, which also saw them exit the Carabao Cup and Europa League.
Pickford was an integral part of the Sunderland team which ultimately failed to stave off demotion from the English top flight at the end of last season.
But the highly-rated goalkeeper sees no similarities between Everton’s current plight and the one that befell his hometown club a matter of months ago.
He said: “It’s not been ideal but we are not far away from winning games.
“We’re not a club that is going to be in the bottom three for long I’d say. It’s just that the luck hasn’t come our way yet.
“It’s a totally different scenario for myself from last season. I think one win will get us to 13th or something in the league.
“Then that one win can become back-to-back wins, and that is where the confidence grows, and it starts Sunday.
“We have had a bad lot of games. I love playing games week in week out, but it has been a change with the Europa League. That may have affected us.
“But we can’t be making excuses. We have to just move forward, dig in and get the win.”