Everton defender Phil Jagielka is convinced they're on the march to Europe.

With the Blues in fifth place in the Premier League, Jagielka admitted that the possibility of a return to European football is driving them on - especially after avoiding their previous habit of bad starts to the season.

"I think the disappointment of the starts of so many seasons has meant that you're sort of deflated before you're even 10 games in," he said.

"This season we've managed to keep ourselves in with a chance. We've not been this high up with as many points around Christmas for a long time. I wouldn't say pressure starts taking a place but it's a nice pressure. Rather than looking behind us thinking we need to win to stay out of the bottom three, it's a case of playing a day late at Newcastle and the pressure being on to stay with the leaders.

"That's a lot better and I'm sure if you asked the lads in the dressing room, it would be something that we all wanted.

"The march towards a European place is motivating us, but we're not looking too far ahead.

"The manager has said that and we haven't got the biggest of squads so we have to take it basically each game at a time. At the moment, that's not working too badly for us."