Everton boss David Moyes admits he may rip up his preseason plans.
Speaking after his team secured a hard-fought point at Tottenham, he insisted he can now begin to plan for an assault on the top half of the table.
He said: "I thought at the start of the season that we would be up there pushing for Europe and I still do.
"We are a little bit short in the strength department and when the early results didn't go too well, you start questioning your own self but in most of the games we have played well.
"I really thought this would be a year to enjoy. A year to have a go and challenge but the start was really disappointing. I could not put my finger on why except to say that we couldn't score.
"One thing is that you can normally walk away and take some little bit of pleasure from the performance, but this went on for two, three, four games and I was asking 'Wait a minute. Have I got that wrong?' Maybe not playing as well as we should be, I have to find another way of winning games.
"A manager's job is to find ways of winning games whether you do it the purist way or do whatever you have to to win."