Thursday 26 October 2017 00:06, UK
Everton's caretaker manager David Unsworth will meet the club's owner Farhad Moshiri on Friday having inspired a vastly-improved performance despite their 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.
Their elimination at the competition's fourth round came in their first fixture following Ronald Koeman's sacking but with the belief and purpose that had long been absent in the final days of the Dutchman's reign.
The 44-year-old Unsworth has spoken of his desire to succeed Koeman on a permanent basis and to that end recalled Tom Davies, Kevin Mirallas, James McCarthy and Aaron Lennon in pursuit of the pace they had lacked.
He also handed a debut to Beni Baningime, 19, who he knows from the club's academy, and proved unfortunate that Chelsea goalkeeper Willy Caballero was in such fine form.
Between Antonio Rudiger heading Antonio Conte's much-changed Chelsea into the lead and Willian's finish in second-half stoppage time, Caballero saved several fine chances they created.
Substitute Dominic Calvert-Lewin's goal came shortly after Willian's but a statement had still been made by Unsworth's team, and he said: "I'm scheduled to meet [Moshiri] on Friday afternoon with the chairman [Bill Kenwright].
"I speak to the chairman two, three, four times a day, so communication is brilliant. I've got a great relationship with the board. What will be will be: I just have to be committed. We have to try and win, and take it from there.
"There's no points return or games total they've set. We'll just continue to work and plan game-to-game. All I know is that we'll hopefully be as committed as that in every game that I'm in charge, and hopefully get on a winning run.
"We started with a great performance. We've got to go on a winning streak and very, very quickly, hopefully at Leicester [in the Premier League] on Sunday. I'm quite excited to take that on and work with everybody."
Everton have now only kept one clean sheet in their last 14 games in all competitions and head to Leicester this weekend looking to end a run of six games without a win.
The Toffees are 18th in the Premier League with eight points from nine games, with Unsworth entrusted with turning the club's fortunes around in the short term.
The former defender has expressed his desire to take the job on a full-time basis, and while his second spell as caretaker manager began with defeat, he was encouraged by his side's display in west London.
He added: "It was a totally committed performance. We don't like losing so we're not happy we've lost the game, but I thought the players were outstanding.
"If we get that every week, we'll be absolutely fine. We had a game plan for an hour, but we knew we had to make a change because James McCarthy was always going to come off.
"The plan is to go and win every game, but I wanted a performance as well. The club got that so it's something to build on and take into the Leicester game."