Stephen Pienaar is convinced Everton's form will lead them to qualifying for Europe again this season.

"Our performance in the last few games have been improving and if you compare us to the start of the season, we are unrecognisable," South Africa midfielder Pienaar told evertonfc.com.

"Even before we played Aston Villa, things had started to improve but we have kept going ever since then and we are pushing hard for the top five."