Naismith would have jumped at Norwich chance

Having come on as a ninth-minute substitute for the injured Muhamed Besic, Naismith headed Everton into a 17th-minute lead at Goodison Park and quickly followed up by scoring his second with a low drive from outside the area.

A transfer request had earlier been rejected, and the former Barnsley youngster has remained on Merseyside.

“We benefited from that experience, and we want to be involved in Europe again”, he said. That was nice in a way but when you’re not playing it is hard to take. I was still coming on in games with a good bit of time to play, so that gave me hope that I could still be here at Everton. It’s only been five games, and they have time to make up ground, but their supporters have to be feeling awfully nervous.

Chelsea-slayer Steven Naismith has been joined by players from Arsenal and Manchester United in the Premier League team of the week.

“You don’t just need to prepare for the Europa League now, you think about it when you are assembling your squad, making the signings and looking at the physical outputs in training”, Martinez was quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo.

The Blues have endured a rocky start to the campaign with two losses, one draw and a win from their first four games. We have to cope with it. Football is about goals, it’s about results. Chelsea, victims to what we can only assume Naismith learnt to do playing for Kilmarnock and Rangers, had no answer for the vertically challenged Scot.

Mourinho tried to explain how fate was getting in the way of Chelsea’s progress this season and he did have a point to an extent.

“The [Everton] game was completely under control and every mistake we made we were punished”. I am not happy but I am coping well with the situation.