Everton boss Frank Lampard has revealed he's spoken with majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri and chairman Bill Kenwright in recent days.

The last-minute defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Boxing Day means Everton remain just one point above the relegation places heading into Saturday's trip to Manchester City.

Asked whether he hoped the circumstances within which he is working - as he attempts to overhaul a squad that was spiralling toward relegation last season but do so amid financial constraints - would overcome the emotion of a difficult period of results, he said: “I can't control any of that from other people as such, but I feel I've got a good understanding of it and that allows me to do my job and just work. I understand it. I understand what I came into at the club, [with it] in a difficult position where a lot of the feeling behind the scenes was, 'we are in real danger of getting relegated here'.

“And the years before that where the club had changed position from being higher to where it was when I came in. And the fight that we all have now on and off the pitch to try and get the club back to where we all want. I can't control everything around it but I understand why emotions would be high from fans.

“The owner, chairman, myself, we all want the best so it's important we keep working on that and the conversations I've had on that have been very positive in that sense."