Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard knows things need to get better and believes the club is just around the corner from their best form.

After a 1-0 loss to Wigan on Monday night that ended a five-game unbeaten run, Howard wants his teammates to put in a much improved effort against Tottenham this week.

"When you lose a game, maybe it's easier to sit down and assess it," Howard told the Liverpool Echo.

"We've now got to lick our wounds and get back up - starting at Tottenham.

"Even during our little five-game run, we knew things needed to improve.

"It was a bad night all around. We expected big things and wanted to keep our run going but it didn't happen.

"We have got to do a lot better. We didn't really look like ourselves. We weren't composed and it's difficult to put a finger on why it happened, as I thought we played pretty well in the first half.

"All of a sudden we were under pressure and ran out of ideas, which was very disappointing."