When Roberto Martinez was appointed as Everton manager many people thought that he may struggle to live up to David Moyes. It's therefore rather ironic that Martinez is revelling in his new job while Moyes is struggling to settle in at Old Trafford. Everton are the only side yet to lose this season and sit sixth in the Premier League table after picking up nine points from their opening five games. The impressive thing is that the new boss has converted Everton's style, but the results have also flowed. Stats from Who Scored confirms that the Toffees are currently the pass masters of the Premier League with an average possession of 59.6% per match, and that is clearly Martinez's influence. His Wigan side always played with a lot of style but usually at the bottom end of the EPL table. The move to the Toffees was always going to be a big test for him, but he has now proved that he can make that transition. It's fair to say that holding on to Leighton Baines was a big success for the summer. The quality that the left back has was shown in the comeback victory against West Ham in which Martinez's side won 3-2 with Baines scoring twice. Baines' performances so far this season has made him the third best performing player in the Premier League. I also felt that the summer transfer market was very well used. The loan signing of Gareth Barry was an excellent piece of business to add defensive stability to the midfield and Romelu Lukaku was an excellent addition to add goals. A lot of teams in the league are still struggling for consistency and Everton may just be the ones to take advantage of the situation, but time will ultimately tell if they have a strong enough squad to fight until the end. So, can Everton qualify for the Champions League this season?
James Kent is a freelance writer published on Yahoo! Sports, Bleacher Report, FTBpro, Bloomberg Sports and many others. He has also been featured in the Daily Telegraph, Zoo Magazine, MSN Sport and the Manchester Evening News.
His role on What Culture is currently to produce compelling football articles that nearly always use of combination of stats and strong opinion. Feel free to connect with James via Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus.
