Sam Allardyce fears Everton risk playing themselves back into a relegation battle.
Last weekend’s 4-0 defeat to Tottenham was the Blues’ fourth reversal in a row and now leaves them just seven points adrift of the Premier League’s drop zone.
West Brom travel to Goodison Park on Saturday as Allardyce looks to put his new side’s season back on track after an initial good start before Christmas.
But the former England manager has warned that Everton are not safe from the threat of returning to the bottom three, as they were prior to his arrival.
He said: “The honeymoon period is over and the players have got to get back to listening to what we need to do to make sure we don’t get drawn back into the relegation zone.
“That is exactly what we are doing at the moment. We have faced facts that we can’t hide behind the wonderful run we had without being defeated.
“We have got to realise that we are threatening ourselves with a relegation fight again. That is a fact.
“We need to make sure we adjust and put that right as quickly as we can by putting points on the board.
“Next week’s game is massive for us now, as to whether we are going to start slipping into the relegation zone or decide we don’t want to be there and put three points on the board against West Brom.”