Everton must now translate away form to Goodison starting this weekend

After a fine Carabao Cup win at Aston Villa last night, Everton return to Premier League action this Saturday afternoon as they host winless Luton Town at Goodison Park.

This weekend’s match represents a chance for the Toffees to bring their excellent recent form on the road back to the Grand Old Lady.

Everton have won two consecutive games away from home scoring five goals and giving fans a new-found degree of confidence that it is still possible for the team to turn this season around.

We certainly shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves and I’m not, but there have been genuine positive signs that progress is perhaps being made.

In both wins the Blues looked energetic, committed, precise and with a cutting edge to their football and particularly the attacking play, something we had seen precious little of before in this campaign.

Players returning from injury have helped as well giving Sean Dyche more options at last and he showed a refreshing willingness to experiment last night tactically too.

Defensively, Everton have been much more solid looking at Brentford and Aston Villa with Jarrad Branthwaite continuing to impress alongside the ever-reliable James Tarkowski and Vitalii Mykolenko and then Nathan Patterson, slotting in again effectively at full-back.

This increased defensive consistency was largely maintained even when Micheal Keane came back into the side yesterday as Dyche went to a back-three.

Although, I’m not convinced this is something we should continue to see after he made yet another trademark mistake that nearly cost a goal.

One particular player who has impressed hugely in these last two wins, is James Garner.

The young midfielder showed his versatility and class first playing out wide at Brentford where he provided an assist and the ball into the box for the first goal and then in a more central position, netting his first goal for the Toffees last night.

His tenacity and the quality of his passing especially, has been a significant upgrade on the midfield options previously available, which were too often predictable and one-dimensional.

He formed an excellent two-man central midfield with Amadou Onana who was also very good last night.

It is one of the questions Dyche has to resolve fully whether Garner should be playing centrally from now on. I would say most definately yes.

And finally, the other major positive we have seen is the return not just to physicsal fitness but genuine sharpness of Dominic Calvert-Lewin leading the line.

The centre-forward looks like he is back to his best, the sort of form and performances that saw him called up to the England squad a few years ago. He should actually have had a brace at Villa but still it was a strong all-round performance.

With him and another tall, powerful and athletic forward in Beto now competing for the lone striker role (if Dyche continues to go that way) then Everton have some real quality and strength in depth up front, at last.

At the weekend the Blues have probably the easiest Premier League match on paper they will have all season long when they host the struggling Hatters.

Now, we have to see if they are able to translate that fine form on the road to Goodison Park where Everton haven’t scored a goal let alone secured a point. Three points is surely an absolute must on Saturday.